


Studying

by PhantomGrimalkin



Category: Marvel, Marvel Avengers Movies Universe, Thor (2011)
Genre: M/M, Pre-Relationship, Teen Romance, Teenagers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-26
Updated: 2012-07-22
Packaged: 2017-11-06 00:49:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 21
Words: 41,014
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/412879
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PhantomGrimalkin/pseuds/PhantomGrimalkin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For all his skills in fighting, Fandral has no head for names or dates, and is struggling to learn the history of Asgard. He finds himself turning for help to someone he'd never have thought to ask. Originally posted on Fanfiction.net</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by livejournal user chibiknives's fic "Asgardian Chivalry Goes a Long Way".

School for the childen of Asgard is not a far cry from what it now is in much of Midgard. Of course, because of Asgard's small population, it rarely has more than a large handful of students taught by the gods who specialize in various subjects. There was also considerably more focus on fighting than on things like mathematics. The history was also considerably different, as was expected.

Thor found it exciting at first. It was the first time that he and Loki would be able to be around people close to their own age, rather than just adults at stuffy ceremonies and servants.

Loki found it nerve wracking for the same reason, but enjoyed learning more. He had already discovered the rarely used Asgard library and spent as much time as he could get there.

As time went on, Thor found most of it boring- aside from the fighting classes, which he enjoyed, and learning about wars and epic battles. Unfortunately, this did not make up nearly as much of their history as he had hoped. He was still glad to spend time around his peers.

Loki found it matched his expectations, he wasn't sure how to get along with the children and, next to his charismatic brother, never got the chance to find out how. He was not half as skilled in fighting as he was, but managed to excel in everything else. If only because he had nothing else to do with his time but study.

Among the other students their age was a girl, Sif, who planned to become a warrior goddess at a young age and was rather vicious in training her fighting skills for this reason. The only student who had any chance to get out of a fight with her without at least a broken bone was Thor, in part because of his skills and in part because of her blossoming crush. In addition was Volstagg, a pudgy young boy that at first was discounted but showed to be a skilled fighter who could give any of them a good fight, winning as often as he lost (they didn't really count fights against Loki in this tally, in part because he'd resort to sorcery the second the teacher looked away, in part because when he couldn't use sorcery he was beaten so easily). There was also Fandral, who had no head for names or dates and constantly struggled to learn their history. He was a very skilled fighter as well, but was unquestionably the worst student in the class when it came to everything else.

Over the years, all of the students became at least passable at the things they were worst with, but Fandral still struggled despite his friends' attempts to help him. He laughed it off, but it actually bothered him. Loki's snide attitude about it didn't help. Fandral could swear that every time he gave a wrong answer in class, the trickster scoffed or smirked. He was not proud to admit that, when he was assigned to fight Loki, he went a bit rougher on him than he probably should as a result. The day's after they sparred, Loki made his scoffing more audible- sometimes enough to get him told off- but on those days Fandral just grinned that he'd gotten to him.

* * *

"I don't know what to tell you, Fandral, I've tried everything I can but you still aren't learning," Bragi, the God who taught writing and history, told him. He had asked the boy to stay after, which of course meant that Thor, Sif, and Volstagg were all standing outside of the classroom doing their best not to eavesdrop while hanging on every word.

Fandral squirmed. He hated the feeling of disappointing someone. "I swear, I've tried as hard as I can," he said helplessly, "I just… _can't_ learn this."

The teacher shook his head, "You need to. If you can't, I'll have to tell your family. I don't even know what will happen, it's been so long since someone failed…" Fandral winced at the thought of his father's face when he heard that news, thankfully he was too wrapped up in that thought to hear the bit about no one failing in so long. "You still have time- a few more years. But you have to find a way to learn… _everything_ in that time."

Fandral nodded silently. He was allowed to leave then, and he walked out the room with his head hanging down. When he got into the hallway, his friends had managed to make a very convincing show of being involved in a discussion and not listening to what had been going on in the room. He was impressed.

"You heard all of that, didn't you?" He asked them with a half smile. The three babbled their objections for a moment before nodding.

"That's pretty rough," Volstagg said.

Fandral nodded, placing his hands on his head, "I don't know what to do!"

"Maybe if you spent as much time in the library as Loki," Thor half-suggested, "It's the only reason he gets the grades he does."

Sif rolled her eyes, "Lot of good it does him when it comes to fighting."

"But Fandral doesn't have a problem with fighting," Volstagg pointed out, "And missing a bit of training won't hurt you that much."

Fandral groaned, "You aren't serious?" he sighed to himself, "You're right. I should probably head over there now."

"I'd go with you, but there's some prince thing I need to do," Thor said apologetically.

"Don't worry about it, I think I'd rather go on my own this time," he said with a smile.

"You're certain?" Volstagg asked doubtfully, but Fandral brushed away his concerns with a wave.

"I'm certain. I think I need some time to think as well," he explained. The four said their good-byes and went their separate ways, Fandral trudging along the winding hallways of Asgard.

* * *

The library was a place that Fandral had rarely spent time in. He'd spent more time getting thrown out of it for ending up too raucous with Thor or Volstagg. It was as spectacular as any other room in Asgard, the walls covered in books with the occasional ladder that he only imagined could move, allowing access to the higher books. There were a few rows from the start, but he knew there were couches and tables to sit at to read the books. The smell of old books made him crinkle his nose.

At the entrance there was also a desk with someone sitting at it. She was reading a book and gave Fandral a warning glance when he walked in, recognizing him from one of the times he'd been tossed out. He managed a reassuring smile. She looked unconvinced but returned to her book nonetheless.

The boy sighed as he walked down the aisles, trying not to think just how many he needed to learn the contents of.

"How am I supposed to do this?" he asked himself quietly, shaking his head. He was wandering aimlessly, deciding to get himself acquainted with the place he'd have to spend more time around than he wanted to think about. It beat trying to decide where to start the hopeless task of attempting not to fail.

When he reached one of the areas with chairs, he stopped and quickly hid behind the bookshelf he'd just passed. Before him was a sight he hardly believed he was seeing. Loki, the ever prim and proper and collected, was lounging on a couch, with his jacket and overshirt next to him. He'd never seen Loki's arms. He knew that Loki had them, but it was a surprise to see them. More surprising, though, was the content smile on his face.

It made him look like a completely different person. It was far from the cold, indifferent, and occasionally smug expression he usually wore. And it was the only reason that a particular thought crossed his mind.

"Loki, it's wonderful to see you," he said with his warmest smile. The pale boy's eyes widened, the smile gone in an instant as he scrambled to grab his jacket, shooting a glare at the intruder into what he'd come to regard as his private sanctuary. Fandral shrunk back slightly.

"What do you want?" he snarled, his jacket once again on, he clutched it closed with both of his hands.

"I didn't mean to…" he didn't know what to apologize for.

Loki ignored this, "Fighting isn't allowed in the library so if that's what you want I suggest you wait until another time."

"That's not what I wanted," Fandral said, "I wanted your help."

"My help?" he asked warily, "With what?"

The dashing boy smiled sadly, "You probably know. I need help with school."

"You… want _my_ help?" Loki asked, shaking his head, "You hate me."

"I hate the way you treat me," he corrected, not able to hide the bitterness in his voice, "Like I'm less than you."

The other boy's lip twitched at this, he glared and looked away, "You take it out on me well enough."

"If you'd just learn to fight—"

"I've tried!" Loki snarled at him, before regaining his composure. The cold expression returned to his face, "I'm afraid I was not _blessed_ with strength the way you four were. I'd have to train constantly just to have a chance to keep up with you. I apologize that the thought doesn't appeal to me."

Fandral frowned, but decided to accept it, "Alright. I'm sorry."

Loki's eyes widened slightly at that and his face again lost the coldness, he let go of his jacket and picked up the book he'd been reading, which had been thrown on the coffee table in front of the couch. "I… can try to help you," he said quietly, smoothing down some of the pages.

"What were you reading?" Fandral asked, carefully walking over to the boy. He stopped when Loki glared at him, and the glare softened.

He shook his head as he closed the book, "Nothing, really, just some book. I found it the other day, it's about Jötunnheim- but not about any battle. Just about the world."

"That's interesting." He wasn't technically lying, it was interesting that this brought such a content smile to the boy, even if it sounded terribly boring. Fandral supposed he just liked reading.

"Mm," Loki responded, raising an eyebrow at the boy, "What do you need help with?"

"Everything," Fandral said quietly, bowing his head.

The trickster managed to hold back a sardonic response and instead nodded slowly, "That's a lot."

"I just can't learn this," Fandral said defensively, running a hand through his head. He started pacing while he continued in a panic, "I don't know what's wrong- I read the same books you do! But the words don't make sense, I don't know why. I try to pay attention in class and… I don't understand the way Bragi speaks. He's a poet- he speaks in verse!"

Loki stood up slowly and held his hands up to show he meant no harm, "It's all right," he said gently.

"How is it all right?" Fandral moaned, dropping himself into one of the chairs next to the couch and placing his head in his hands, "No one's failed in longer than _Bragi_ can remember and I'm going to."

The trickster felt a pang of guilt for all the times he had teased or scoffed at the other boy for not knowing something. He swallowed uncomfortably, "I never realized it bothered you this much. I thought you didn't care."

"I tried not to," he said, taking his hands down and crossing his arms over his chest, "I definitely didn't want you knowing."

Loki nodded, "I apologize, for all those times." He would like to say that he wouldn't have been such a jerk if he'd known it bothered Fandral, but that probably wasn't true.

"Thanks," Fandral said quietly.

Loki looked over at him and smiled nervously, "Where do you want to start?"

"I don't know, where do you think is best?" Fandral asked, returning the nervous smile with a warm one. If there was one thing Fandral was good at, it was putting people at ease with a smile. It didn't work as well as he would have liked, but it also didn't make anything worse, and that seemed good enough for now.


	2. Chapter 2

Loki, not being a teacher, had not been certain exactly what he was supposed to do. He found a book that they were supposed to know and handed it to Fandral, figuring that he'd just try to help the boy with whatever he didn't understand.

About a minute in, it became clear that this would not work, though he didn't know why.

"What's wrong?" he asked softly. The blonde boy was glaring at the page.

"I can't read this," the reply came through clenched teeth.

"What do you mean?"

"I can read, obviously," Fandral defended himself from an accusation Loki hadn't made, "I know all the letters! I know how to spell! But when I look at a page…" he gestured helplessly at it, placing his head in his hands, "The letters don't line up right." The boy squeezed his eyes closed, preparing himself for Loki's disdain.

"Alright," the pale boy said quietly, taking the book, "Why don't I read it to you?"

"What?"

Loki looked at him, uncertain where the confusion came from. "If you can't read the books, you aren't going to learn by staring at it all day," he said simply.

Fandral shook his head, "Nobody ever took me seriously before. The others thought I was just trying to be lazy."

"Oh," Loki said blankly, "Shall I start?" The blonde nodded numbly.

A bit later the pale boy stopped reading, to Fandral's confusion, "That's it?"

"No- but I want you to tell me what I just read."

"You know what you just read."

Loki tightened his lips for a moment, but decided to be patient. "I know. I want to know what you got out of it."

"Er… right," Fandral said, scratching his cheek as he thought about it, "The first two humans on Midgard were created by Odin… and two other gods."

"Do you know their names?"

"The gods or the humans?"

"Yes."

Fandral furrowed his brow, "Odin," he repeated himself, "Hoenir and… Lo-something."

"Lodurr," Loki supplied gently.

"Right, him. And the two people were… Ask and Embla."

"That's right," Loki said,.

Fandral smiled, of course he doubted that he'd remember them later. "They were made out of trees. Um… they were named after the kind of tree they were named after."

"Do you know what kind of trees they were?"

"Ash…. And elm," Fandral answered, which got a nod, "But they weren't really alive," he started rapping his knuckles on the table, "Odin give them their souls- made them alive. Hoenir gave them sense- their 5 senses. Lodurr gave them blood."

"What were their names?"

"I just said that!"

"Humor me," Loki said flatly.

"Ask and Embla were the humans, made from ash and elm by Odin, Hoenir, and Lodurr," he said, rolling his eyes.

"Very good."

Fandral frowned, "What was the point of that?"

"The more often you repeat something," Loki said, "The longer you remember it."

"Really?"

"I've read books on memory, I'm pretty sure that's right," he replied.

Fandral tilted his head to the side, "How much time have you spent in the library, exactly?"

"We should continue, you've got a lot to learn," Loki interrupted.

* * *

Fandral wasn't sure what to expect the next day in class. He wasn't sure if any of what they'd studied would come up, or if he'd be able to remember it if it did. He really didn't know what Loki would do if he messed up something that they'd spent hours on the night before.

Not that he really wanted to say that he was getting help from Loki. Sif hated him, and the others probably would end up teasing him about it.

"Don't worry about it," Volstagg told him warmly as the 4 walked to class.

"He can't expect you to make a complete turn around in one day," Sif agreed, "You are putting the effort in, right? That's what matters."

"I am," Fandral agreed, "I spent… I don't want to think about how long in that library last night."

Thor clapped him on the back, "Then you'll get it eventually- so don't worry if you aren't great today. You'll get better soon."

' _Thank you for the vote of confidence,_ ' Fandral thought to himself. He appreciated the thought, but this wasn't helping.

They walked into the room. It was piled with statues, books, paper, all sorts of things that Bragi had collected over the years. Inside was a round table that the 5 students sat on one side of. Loki was already there, as usual, reading a book at one end of the table. The other three sat down like they usually did, this time Fandral took the seat nearest Loki. This in itself wasn't remarkable, the three boys generally rotated where they sat because they didn't terribly care. Sif tried to sit next to Thor whenever she could, except for when it meant having to sit next to Loki.

Fandral looked over at Loki for a moment, until the pale boy noticed this and looked up. The blonde boy smiled at him, to which Loki gave a confused look and returned to his book, shrinking into himself.

"What's his problem?" he muttered to himself, turning back to see what his friends were up to. At this point he realized Sif was sitting next to him (Thor on the other side of her).

"What _isn't_ his problem?" she scoffed, rolling her eyes. Fandral risked a glance over, in time to see Loki's brow furrow at the remark. She never did care to keep her voice down when it came to that.

After a few more minutes Bragi came in and walked over to one of his piles of papers, "I trust everyone read up on the creation of humans last night."

Fandral straightened in his chair and turned to the trickster, who was looking at Fandral out of the corner of his eye. The blond mouthed "thank you", and could have sworn he saw the corner of the pale boy's mouth turn up.

"Loki, close that book," Bragi said, placing the papers on the table in front of him.

"It has nothing to do with what we're studying, check it yourself," he insisted. Bragi gave him a look, and the boy closed the book and shoved it across the table before crossing his arms.

"You're too kind," the man said with a sigh, "Alright, which Asgardians created the first humans on Midgard?"

"Odin, Hoenir and Lodurr," Fandral said in disbelief. Bragi smiled at him, raising an eyebrow. "Odin gave them their souls, Hoenir their blood and Lodurr their sense," the boy continued without even noticing that he'd interrupted the teacher, he ran a hand through his hair, "I remembered it."

"Almost- Hoenir gave them sense and Lodurr gave them blood, but that was close," Bragi corrected him. "I'll let you off, but next time do remember the class rules."

He realized then that he hadn't raised his hand, he'd been too shocked to know something in this class, and slunk down in his seat as his cheeks started turning red, "Of course, I'm sorry."

* * *

Fandral hoped that Loki would be in the library again that night. Luckily, he was right, and again saw the boy there, with the same smile. This time his shirt and jacket were on, which made the blonde boy wonder if he was expected.

"You are amazing!" he said, walking over to the boy, who jolted at the interruption. Fandral was tempted to grab Loki up in a hug, but was rather certain that wouldn't go over well.

"Right," Loki said, attempting to recollect himself, "I'm glad you did well today."

Fandral sat down next to him, which Loki responded to by moving further into the side of the couch and looking around uncertainly. Fandral ignored this and grinned at him, "It's because of you, though, I've never been able to do that. I remember everything else you told me, too. I remember Yggdrasil, I remember… _most_ of the worlds. That's better than before, though!"

Loki nodded, "You'll have to review it periodically to remember it longer, though."

Fandral's face fell a bit when he heard that, but he shook it and his grin returned, "I still remembered, though. Thank you."

"You're welcome," the pale boy said nervously, still not sure what to do with all this. He had gone from having very little social interaction with anyone who wasn't his brother to having a charismatic person invading his personal space.

"Are you okay?" the blonde asked, finally noticing how uncomfortable Loki was.

He paused and tried to think about how to put it."Well, you see, I'm not exactly… _accustomed_ to anyone being this close to me," he said quietly.

"Oh," Fandral replied, shifting over so that he was at the other end of the couch, "I didn't realize."

"And usually the only person to speak that enthusiastically to me is Thor when he's come up with something ridiculous that he's dragging me into," Loki added with a half smile.

The blonde laughed, he was well familiar with that side of Thor as well. Loki's smile widened the slightest bit at that, but he just looked down at the coffee table in front of them.

"Will you keep helping me?" Fandral asked, biting his lip.

"Yeah, I can," he said quietly. The blonde laid his head back against the couch and let out a relieved sigh. Loki looked over at him uncertainly, "You are good at this."

"You don't have to lie to make me feel better," the blonde replied bitterly.

Loki looked back at the table, "I wasn't."

Fandral looked over at the boy, "Really?"

"Really," he replied, looking up out of the corner of his eyes, "I guess you just weren't trying the right way."

"Thanks." The two smiled at each other for a moment before Fandral added, "You're still horrible at fighting, though."

"Hence the books on sorcery," he pointed out, holding up the book he'd been reading.

"That won't help you pass the class."

"No, but in an _actual_ fight it'll mean I won't get killed."

Fandral nodded, "That is a _very_ good point."


	3. Chapter 3

After two weeks of this, Fandral was far from spectacular but his improvement was clear. Some of him was bothered that this was reliant on someone else, he couldn't figure out his problem with books and relied on Loki to be able to learn any of this. It wasn't a large bother, though. To his surprise, he actually enjoyed spending time with the pale boy. It wasn't the same as with his other friends, planning adventures or going on them, each with their own vision of glory to come. It was always exciting and raucous. Spending time with Loki was quiet, they didn't talk about anything besides what was read, but it was nice in its own way.

What bothered him more was that he didn't know how to get the boy to open up. Or even really acknowledge him outside the library. On one of the first days, at lunch, he had called over to the boy and was responded to with a cold glare. Even Thor couldn't understand why he'd tried.

Today he was going to try a different approach. At lunch, he hung back while the other three went over to their usual seats. It would take them a bit to notice. Some time later, Loki walked in and also started walking to his usual seat, as far away from the other 4 as he could usually manage. A few steps in he realized that Fandral was walking with him.

"What are you doing?" he asked quietly.

"Sitting with you," the blonde smiled at him.

At this point the three noticed Fandral's absence and looked over to see what was going on. Loki shot him a glare for the unwanted attention before storming to where he usually sat, opening the book he had with him and burying himself in it.

Fandral sighed, but was not that easily deterred. He walked over and took the seat next to Loki, and could have sworn he heard the boy growl when he did this.

"What are you reading?" he asked, trying to get a look at the book cover.

" _Nothing_ ," Loki replied, closing the book with a finger in it and hiding it from the boy.

"What's it about?" Fandral asked with a chuckle. Along the table, Thor said something about interfering before Fandral ended up finding his bed filled with spiders and stood up.

"Leave me alone," the pale boy muttered, glaring at the table. Because of this, he failed to notice Thor had walked over to him. The future thunder god snatched the book from his brother's hand and opened it to the same page.

"What are you doing?" Loki snarled, standing up so quickly he knocked his chair over.

"Thor—" Fandral started.

"Seeing what you're reading," Thor replied pleasantly, ignoring his friend, "Must be interesting if you're so eager to hide it."

"Fine- if everyone is so interested in it, just keep it," he spat, walking out of the room before anyone had a chance to respond. Of course, only one of the four had any interest in stopping him.

"Why did you do that?" Fandral asked with a sigh as Thor picked up the chair Loki had been sitting in and took it.

Thor shook his head as he read over the pages, flipping through slightly, "You don't know my brother, Fandral. If you kept up like that he'd have hexed you or something."

"What was he reading, anyways?"

The son of Odin shrugged and laughed, "It really is nothing. Some book on diseases- but not even the interesting, painful or gory ones. The one he's reading about right now is just pathetic."

"Yeah?" Fandral asked warily.

"It's boring, makes it hard to read or something," Thor didn't notice as his friend's eyes widened, "It has this picture- I guess what it's like- just letters out of order or turned about," he shrugged, handing the book to Fandral, who just ran a hand over the page.

"Come on, we should eat," Thor nudged him.

* * *

Loki didn't show up for the classes they had in the afternoon, and Fandral supposed there'd be no point in looking for him in the library. And so he wandered over to where he knew that Thor's quarters were in the hope that Loki's were in the same place. He didn't care to ask anyone, but supposed that just knocking on doors wasn't a great plan.

It was the only one he had.

So he was terribly relieved that the first door he tried got a rather terse "Who is it?" from a voice he was certain came from the pale boy.

"Fandral?" he called back nervously.

On the other side of the door, Loki tried to decide if it was worth making a snide comment about the questioning tone and how Fandral should probably work out who he is before visiting people. He decided against it. Loki stood up from the chair he was sitting in, placed the book he was reading on the table with a book mark in it, put on his jacket and walked over to the door. He did not hurry in any of this. He opened the door about a second before Fandral had planned to start knocking again, and cringed as the blond's face brightened.

"What?"

"I brought your book back," Fandral said, holding it to him, a folded piece of paper acting as a book mark, "Thor lost your place, but it was around there."

"It's not mine, it's the library's," Loki answered coldly.

"You were reading it."

"I'm not now."

"I'm really sorry about earlier, I didn't think Thor would do that," Fandral said quietly.

"I told you to leave me alone."

"Why, though?" the blond asked, "Why are you okay with helping me learn everything but don't want to have anything to do with me the rest of the time?"

The pale boy glared at him, "Because I _know_ my brother will do things like that and Sif will do worse. I just want to be left alone."

They stoodthere for a moment, Loki leaning against his door and Fandral looking at the book still in his hands. The blond boy looked up at him, "Please take this."

"Thor told you what it was about."

"Why wouldn't you tell me?"

"If I did, would you have left me alone?"

Fandral shook his head with a small smile, "I probably would have hugged you, actually. I can see why you didn't. "Loki held his hand out, and the other boy handed the book to him. "Thank you."

The pale boy opened the book and flipped through to the page he had been on, placing the makeshift bookmark there. He didn't say anything.

"Do you want me to leave you alone now?"

Loki gave him a puzzled look, "I don't have any books on what you need to know."

Fandral shrugged, "I didn't think you did."

The pale boy looked away for a few moments, and Fandral prepared to be told to leave. "Why?"

"I want to be your friend," the blond replied, "If that's alright."

Again Loki didn't say anything, but he stepped back and opened the door wider.

* * *

"Don't you want to take a break from studying? You've been at it daily for over a month," Volstagg asked.

Fandral rolled his eyes, "You're exaggerating, only on days before we have class."

"You know what we mean," Sif said, playfully punching his arm, "It feels like we never really see you any more."

The blond boy rubbed his neck nervously, he had never been particularly skilled when it came to saying no to his friends. He'd never really had to. And he'd never _properly_ made any agreements with Loki about how often they'd meet… They'd just fallen into the habit of meeting every day. If this thought was supposed to convince him, it wasn't really managing to.

Part of Fandral wanted to explain exactly why he couldn't, but a selfish bit of him liked that his friends thought he was able to do this on his own. A realistic part of him knew that if anyone teased about this even once, the pale boy would never help him again. There was some comfort in knowing that he was more convinced by this than the previous reason not to.

"I don't know, I really don't want to get out of the habit… I still have a lot to learn," he said, wishing that he could sound more convincing than that. It felt like he would be letting someone down either way.

"Come on," Thor said, and he knew that he wouldn't be able to get out of it, "One day can't hurt, right?"

"I guess you're right," he agreed, knowing that Thor was not one to take 'no' for an answer. Not without a _very_ good reason. And Fandral couldn't give him the reason. His only options were to spend awhile failing to convince him to change his mind or give up now. He'd never thought about how spoiled Thor could act before, but he really could.

* * *

He wasn't right. Fandral knew he wouldn't be right when he agreed. Not that he could deny he'd enjoyed spending more time with the three, and probably could have used a break from trying to cram his brain with so much. But the boy hadn't been able to shake the feeling that he was letting Loki down by just not showing up.

Fandral had not gotten much sleep that night. For all the justifying he had managed to do, Fandral knew exactly how he would have felt had Loki just not shown up one day. There was one day he thought Loki'd decided not to, but it turned out he was only in a part of the library Fandral hadn't been to before, looking for a book he felt explained things better.

The 20 minutes or so that the blond had spent waiting in the hopes Loki would show up anyways had not been enjoyable. He had been torn between worrying if the pale boy had gotten sick or hurt, or if he just didn't want to waste any more time on Fandral. That thought had hurt more than he'd care to admit. That day was the first, and only, time Fandral had ever risked giving Loki a hug, he was so relieved to see the boy had come (and find out he had been there). It wasn't returned, he never expected it would be, but he noticed a small smile on the boy's face when he'd let go, that Loki hadn't hidden quickly enough with an indignant glare. Fandral's stomach turned as he realized just how much of the work he'd done to earn the boy's trust he may have ruined.

On this day, though, as had happened every single day, Loki was already there when the other four reached the classroom, reading some book or other. He ignored them when they came in and grumbled when Bragi made him close his book. It wasn't the same, though. Loki's face was stony and, the few times Fandral risked looking at him, his eyes were far away. Usually Loki paid far more attention to what Bragi had to say, sometimes even looking interested. Today, the one time he'd been called on to answer something, it took Bragi snapping his fingers in front of the boy's face to get him to respond, and he only did by shouting "What?" with more rage than even Thor had ever seen him use. Fandral wondered if he was the only one who also heard hurt in it.

Thor spent that lunch sitting with Loki, the other three knew better than to try and join him. This usually only happened when Loki was sick but stubbornly insisted on going to class anyways. No one had to ask why, and Fandral was glad to notice that Thor was still able to tease a smile from his brother. Although he was temped to, he didn't risk more than the occasional glance at the two and an attempt to overhear what they were saying.

Fandral wasn't sure how to fix this, but he knew that he had to.


	4. Chapter 4

After dinner that night, Fandral again walked to where Loki's room was, now with more confidence that he actually knew where he was going. He got there and was surprised to see Thor waiting outside the door to his own quarters. The boy smiled at him, "I thought I'd be seeing you here."

"You did?"

"You're not terribly subtle, Fandral, you spent more of lunch watching us than you probably realized." Fandral looked down, annoyed at himself. "Between that and Loki's response when I asked if you had something to do with why he was so upset…" Thor shrugged, "I thought I'd be seeing you here."

"I need to talk to him," he said quietly.

"Not now."

"But—"

"How well do you know my brother?" Fandral was taken aback by the serious tone in Thor's voice, it was one he didn't use often. "Because I know that I haven't seen him this upset in a long time- and when he gets like this, his sorcery both gets more powerful and erratic. He could easily do serious damage without meaning to."

Fandral wanted to say that he didn't care, but the look on Thor's face made him decide otherwise. He looked at Loki's door sadly for a moment.

"Thor, why does Loki know sorcery? I was always told that it wasn't for men to do," he asked, realizing that he now had a chance to ask about something he'd been wondering about, "I thought that was why you didn't know it, but I didn't understand why Loki did."

"No, I just don't have the talent for it like Loki does," Thor said, smiling. He looked down, "Also, it was the only thing Loki's ever been able to share with our father, and I didn't want to take that away from him."

"Odin practices sorcery?" Fandral's eyes widened.

"Yes," he said, surprised that it wasn't common knowledge, "He once went to Midgard and spent time there as a wizard."

"Wow." Once the amazement from that wore off, he sighed, "I'm going to go."

"I'll see you later," Thor replied with a smile that Fandral wasn't up to returning.

* * *

A few days later, the Norns seemed to smile on Fandral (well, as much as they're likely to) and he was paired up to spar with Loki in their fighting class. After three or four days of ignoring Fandral's existence, the pale boy groaned at this and made a comment about preferring to spar with Sif. Fandral couldn't help but think he hadn't meant that, as Tyr (their trainer) was all too happy to match his least cooperative student with her, and Loki had made sure to say it so that the god of war did not overhear him and get any ideas.

While fighting may not seem like the ideal way to make things up to someone, Loki had spent the entirety of the class resolutely refusing to throw the first punch. He rarely threw one, really, and spent most fights dodging and, when Tyr wasn't looking, using sorcery to avoid being hit. This was mostly why Tyr preferred pairing him with Sif- she had no qualms with attacking Loki. Thor resolutely refused to, and the other two boys would try to talk their way out of it and unless Loki tried a particularly nasty trick, it wasn't much of a fight.

Their class was held in the gardens right outside the healing room, for obvious reasons. The plants had been done in a way to set up several grassy areas large enough for people to spar in that weren't properly separate, so Tyr could usually keep an eye on both fights at once and interrupt when needed to correct a stance.

"Loki, I'm sorry," Fandral said to Loki as they walked over to one of the areas. Thankfully, Tyr was too tied up by Thor and Volstagg, who had managed to get each other laughing so hard they practically couldn't move.

"Don't be," Loki said quietly, watching the two with some interest. He was always pleased to see someone else in the class be the cause of Tyr's anger, just for the change of pace.

"Aren't you mad at me?"

"No." Fandral stared at him and Loki looked up at him, his face expressionless, "I'm angry with myself, but I don't see how that's any of your business."

"Why?"

"For doing something foolish."

The blond felt annoyance tug at him, but he tried to ignore it. "What do you mean?" He asked sharply. He had never been good at ignoring his feelings.

"I shouldn't have expected you to think of me as anything but something to help you when you felt like it," he muttered.

"You think that's how it is?"

"It isn't?" Loki raised an eyebrow in disbelief.

Fandral felt the days of worrying himself sick, the restless nights, and the infuriating way Loki was able to ignore his existence bubbling into anger. He slapped the pale boy's cheek sharply before he'd had a chance to think of it, looking at his hand in surprise afterwards, not believing he'd actually done it.

Loki touched his hand to his cheek, his eyes wide and furious and fixed on Fandral. The blond didn't back down, "Don't tell me what I think."

Without any warning, Loki's fist swung out and connected with Fandral's cheek, causing him to stumble. He tasted blood. It was Loki's turn to look at his hand, not believing he'd just done that, he glared at his fist, then Fandral, then just let out a furious shout that managed to distract Volstagg and Thor from their joking.

The boy shook his head and stormed over to the door, ignoring Tyr's shouting to him not to.

Fandral felt something on his tongue and spat it onto his hand. Loki had actually knocked one of his teeth out. Not sure what else to do with it, he placed it in his pocket before running after the pale boy. He hoped no one else would follow. They didn't.

"Loki, stop," he shouted once he'd also gotten inside, this was ignored. His brain tried to think of a way to get him to stop, "You're still wearing your sparring gear, you don't even have shoes on."

Loki did stop at this, glared at him for a moment, and before Fandral could feel relieved that he'd gotten through, he watched in bewildered amazement as Loki's clothes morphed themselves into what he had been wearing earlier. That was a neat trick.

The boy continued walking quickly down the corridor, and Fandral ran to catch up with him.

"Leave me alone, Fandral," Loki snarled. Fandral didn't say anything, but continued following him. It wasn't a terrible surprise that Loki headed straight for his quarters. When he reached the door he spun on Fandral, who almost ran into him and again snarled, "Leave. Me. _Alone._ "

"No." he said firmly, grateful for a chance to catch his breath.

Loki clenched his hands at his side, "Why not?"

The blond boy looked him in the eyes, "Because I care about you and one way or another I'm going to make you believe that."

"But I don't want to!" Loki shouted. It echoed down the hall and he looked at Fandral helplessly.

"Why not?" he asked gently, risking a small smile.

Loki looked down, "It doesn't hurt as much when you think people don't care about you."

"I'm so sorry," Fandral said.

"What do you want?"

The blond boy wanted to say something comforting or meaningful or relevant, but he really couldn't think of anything. "Right now? Salt water." Loki gave him a puzzled look and Fandral smiled sadly at him, "You knocked one of my teeth out."

"I did?" the pale boy stared in disbelief.

Fandral nodded, "I should probably go back to the healing room to get some."

"No, follow me," Loki said quietly, opening the door to his room and making sure Fandral was following him before he went in. He went through the door in the main room, which Fandral was not surprised to see led to the boy's bedroom, and through that to his bathroom.

Fandral hovered in the doorway curiously. Loki had gone to a large cupboard. On one of the shelves was soaps and the sort of things you'd expect to see in such a room, the rest was filled with various vials of liquids, gauze, all sorts of things. Loki quickly fished out a jar labeled sea salt, took a cup from the shelf and poured some in before pouring warm water from the tap into it and handing it to the boy.

"What is all that stuff?"

"I hate going to the healing center," Loki replied simply as Fandral took the cup. Loki stepped outside and leaned against the wall as Fandral rinsed out his mouth with the water.

"Do you think they can put my tooth back or something?" Fandral asked him afterwards. They were both sitting against one of the walls in Loki's room, Fandral with an ice pack on his cheek and Loki with one on his hand.

"I hope so," he said quietly, "I apologize for that. I shouldn't have hit you."

"I shouldn't have either."

"I probably shouldn't have gotten so upset."

"Hey, remember that day when you were looking for that book so I didn't know you were in the library?" Fandral asked, Loki nodded, he smiled at the pale boy, "I got really worried when I thought you weren't going to come, I probably would've been pretty upset if you hadn't."

"I guessed that," a small smile came on Loki's face, "from the way you reacted to seeing me."

"Sorry about that," Fandral said. Loki shook his head slightly, but didn't say anything. The blond boy smiled, "I guess we're both scared."

"What do you have to be scared about? We figured out some tricks that let you read."

Fandral gently bopped Loki on the head, which earned a disturbed look. "You can't be that dense."

The pale boy crossed his arms and looked away with a huff.

"Fine, you can be anything you want to be," Fandral said with a laugh.

"And don't forget it," Loki replied haughtily.

The two smiled nervously at each other for a moment. The blond took the ice pack off his face and looked at it before looking back at Loki, who was now looking at his own hand sadly. Fandral smirked, "If this bruises, no one will believe that you did it to me."

Loki looked up with a small smile, "I could sign it, if you wanted." The blond laughed at that, and Loki continued, "Write 'this bruise was caused by Loki Odinsson' in big letters."

"Yes- _that_ would convince people you did it," Fandral agreed, chuckling at the idea, "They'd probably think you just tripped me or something." He winced slightly and put the ice pack back in place, "I still can't believe you managed to hit me this hard."

"I don't think I'll be able to write for a week," Loki said, lifting the ice pack off his hand and looking at it. His fingers, particularly his knuckles, were starting to turn purple. He closed his eyes and put his head back against the wall. "I've never _really_ hit anyone before."

"I don't think you'll make it a habit," Fandral said, placing a hand on the boy's shoulder.

"Maybe we shouldn't tell anyone I did it," Loki said seriously, looking over at Fandral, "Tyr'll expect me to actually fight now."

"You know, learning to fight isn't such a bad thing. What if for some reason you couldn't rely on sorcery? What would you do then?"

Loki shrugged, looking back at his hand.

"Come on- imagine the look on Sif's face if you managed to get a hit in on her," the blond said, "You _can't_ tell me that's not something you'd like to see."

"I've just never liked it, it feels so undignified," he said quietly, although his lips curled upwards slightly at the thought.

Fandral shook his head, "You just haven't seen it done right. Skilled fighting is an _art_. You should see what some swordsmen can do, the fluidity of movement, how the blade becomes like an extension of their arm, no one could call it undignified."

"I'll have to take your word for it."


	5. Chapter 5

"I don't know how you talked me into this," Loki said quietly. They were both standing in the main area of his room. The furniture had been pushed out of the way and Loki was now standing with his arm crossed, huddling into himself and refusing to cooperate.

Fandral sighed and placed an arm around the boy's shoulders, ignoring the glare this got. "Look- I promise, I won't hurt you. You won't hurt me. There is no risk in this, I'm just going to try to teach you how not to lose so painfully."

The glare deepened, "When you put it like _that_."

"What would you rather I teach you?"

"Nothing! I don't want to learn how to fight."

"This isn't fighting- it's self-defense," he insisted, "Why would you not want to learn that?"

Loki tapped his cheek thoughtfully. Fandral went to make a comment but he raised a hand, "No- I can think of a good reason."

"Loki…"

He responded by looking away and pursing his lips slightly, his chin stuck out slightly in stubborn defiance.

Fandral took his arm off the boy's shoulder and rubbed his forehead. Something occurred to him, "How much of this is because Thor is such a skilled fighter?"

The trickster looked at Fandral in surprise at the question before looking away, "Not _all_ of it."

The blond groaned and shook his head. To say there was a rivalry between the two brothers would imply that it was mutual, but it was not hard to tell that Loki had some issues being in his brother's shadow, whether he'd admit to it or not. He looked over at the boy, who's face was mostly blank. Fandral licked his lips, nervous that he'd genuinely upset the pale boy with this. Quietly he said, "You know, you can't let your brother limit what you do in life."

"I can't help it," Loki said quietly, looking over Fandral for a moment. He didn't like opening up to people, and that was essentially what he had to do now. After doing his best to ignore the instinct to lock up and just refuse to budge on the issue, he looked away from Fandral, "Before we were put in the class, when we were young (Thor might not even remember it), we were trained privately. Privately, but not separately. Thor, of course, had a great affinity and picked things up easily. He helped me as much as he could, but I still struggled and the teacher demanded that I match Thor's pace. Never went out and said it, but he treated me like a waste of space for not being better. Father making such a big deal out of Thor's achievements didn't help."

"I didn't know," he answered weakly.

"Of course you didn't," Loki snapped, turning sharply to face him. Fandral could swear the room just got colder. The pale boy took a deep breath and shook his head, placing his fingertips on his temples, "I apologize for that. I can't think about learning to fight without remembering how _worthless_ I felt then."

Fandral smiled gently at him, taking a step to close the distance between them before wrapping his arm around him. He was a bit disturbed by how thin Loki was, how frail he seemed, but this was hardly the time to discuss that. "We'll just have to fix that."

"Why are you hugging me?"

"It's supposed to be comforting," he replied, "Is it not?" Loki didn't respond to the question, which Fandral took as meaning that it was some comfort. If it weren't, the boy would have had no problem shoving him off or making a snide remark.

"I don't like trusting people," Loki said quietly, trying not to relax into the hug.

"Do you want me to go?" Fandral asked. Loki shrugged, and he started to break the hug until the pale boy's hands grabbed his shirt to stop him. The blond stifled a sigh, it was hard to know what to do with someone so afraid to say what he meant. He stepped away and ruffled Loki's perfectly kept hair, "I just… don't really know how to go about fixing this."

"Not like that," he replied, rushing to smooth his hair again. The blond laughed before frowning as he started to think about what he could do to help. Loki noticed this and shifted uncomfortably, "You _really_ don't have to, you know, don't worry about it."

Fandral smiled at him, "You didn't have to spend all that time helping me with my reading problems." Loki didn't look at him and just stared off into space for a few moments. Fandral started to worry that he shouldn't have brought this up or should have said something else

Before he had a chance to say anything, Loki turned to him, his expression determined, "Teach me something."

"Are you certain?"

"I believe so…" Loki looked down slightly as he thought about it before looking Fandral in the eyes, "Yes."

"On one condition," he said sincerely, looking over the boy's face for a sign of doubt or that this wasn't the right thing to do.

Loki's brows furrowed, "What?"

"I only will if you promise me you'll remember that you're basically only just starting, and it's natural to make mistakes," he said gently, "If you start getting upset when you get things wrong, I'll stop."

The pale boy let out a small laugh and shook his head, "I will do my best."

Unlike Fandral, Loki had no interest in showing what he had learned. He still argued with Tyr every class and, when made to fight Sif, only made weak attempts at blocking and preferred relying on magic when he got the chance. Fandral would often find himself watching this in aggravation at both Loki and himself- even during his own sparring matches, which generally meant whoever he was fighting got in more hits than they should have.

Obviously, his friends started noticing and asking him about it, but he brushed the questions away. When someone started suggesting that it was because he was spending too much time studying, Thor actually stepped in to cut that off. Now, when they bugged him to skip a day of studying and he declined (occasionally he agreed, since he'd spoken to Loki about it), Thor also told them to lay off. Fandral wasn't certain if Loki & Thor actually spoke more than he realized, or if Thor had just guessed what was going on. Either way, he was grateful.

It didn't take long to figure out that Loki had been right, he was much weaker than an Asgardian should be (although nowhere near as weak as a Midgardian), and the disadvantage that put him at was undeniable. Of course, as soon as Loki was comfortable enough with the idea of fighting, he found a few spells that made up for that. Fandral suspected that he used them while fighting now, but had no interest in telling anyone. As far as he was concerned, these put Loki on even footing with everyone else. He didn't say anything, but he suspected that this was a bit of why Loki had been able to hit him so hard- Thor _did_ say he didn't have the best control on his magic when upset.

Fandral spent a few weeks watching Loki fail to block hits he could have without saying anything. As much as he hated to see it, he knew that it would take more for Loki to get over his issues with fighting. He hated feeling useless. He knew that Loki could easily have found something in the library on this. The damn bookworm may not know everything, but he knew very well how to find out anything he needed to know. Fandral knew how to swing a sword. That was not terribly useful here.

Of course, after a few weeks of nothing terribly eventful happening something was bound to come up. This time it came in the form of Sif once again trying to flirt with Thor and having her affections completely ignored. He didn't do this on purpose, he was simply oblivious to her attempts, which made it more aggravating for the poor girl. Fandral and Volstagg wondered if this was because he didn't want to think of her like that because he liked the way the four got on and didn't want to upset that with romance, or if he was just that oblivious.

It happened every now and then, but was getting more often lately. Sif had had a crush that, to everyone but Thor, had been obvious since they were rather young. Now that they were older and at the point where it was normal and expected to start being interested in romance and all that it entailed, she started to become more bold in her attempts to get Thor to notice and return her feelings.

It never worked. Each time it happened she ended up furious.

Today, of course, it had to happen during lunch. Not long before Tyr's class. Volstagg and Fandral spent most of the lunch trying to think of ways to fake illness in case Tyr tried to set them against Sif. In her mood, she wouldn't even go easy on Thor and anyone else who had to fight her was at serious risk. Fandral also spent the lunch wishing that he could go over to Loki and beg him to defend himself if he was set up against Sif- just this once.

While he knew trying to do this during lunch wouldn't work, Fandral instead hung back as his friends left, Volstagg trying to distract Sif from her rejection while Thor made it worse.

"What is it?" Loki asked, walking over to him.

The blond looked at him with such concern that he started to worry he was dying and everyone had forgotten to tell him. "Sif spent lunch trying to flirt with Thor."

The trickster snorted, his worries now gone. Not that again. "I wish that she'd either give up or he'd take notice, it's pathetic. Both of them."

Fandral rolled his eyes in agreement before remembering why he this conversation was happening. "No- she gets _really_ upset when this happens. If you have to spar with her today, it'll be worse than ever. _Please_ ," he grabbed Loki's hand, "Please use what I taught you if that happens."

"I—" he wanted to say no, but one look at Fandral's pleading eyes and he knew he couldn't. "I'll try, I swear."

He relaxed visibly, although there was still a knot in his stomach, and grabbed Loki into a hug, "Thank you. I can't stand to see you hurt."

Loki nodded awkwardly, his eyes fearfully darting around the empty room as if someone were going to leap out and see him. He pushed Fandral off quickly, "I know."

"We have half an hour before class starts," Fandral said, not terribly bothered by being pushed off like that. He'd expected it, "Do you want to do anything?"

He raised an eyebrow, "You don't want to catch up with them."

"With Sif like that?"

Loki shook his head. "Right," he said quietly, his lips went tight for a moment, but he replaced that with a slight smile quickly, "I'm not picky."

The Norns being the occasionally cruel weavers of fate that they are, it was no surprise to anyone that Tyr had decided to have Loki fighting Sif that day. Fandral made an attempt to talk him out of it, though without being able to say the reason it didn't work very well.

Tyr snorted at the idea, actually, "Please- you're getting as bad as Thor. If I assign you to spar with Loki, I might as well tell the two of you to pick wildflowers."

"I am amenable to that idea," Loki called over from where he was sitting and trying not to look terrified. He refused to let it show how much his fights with Sif bothered him, but the girl could pack a mean punch and the thought of her being worse than usual made his stomach churn.

"I don't want to know why you'd care to do that," their teacher called over.

And Loki didn't want Tyr to know why he'd care to do that, he had no real interest in telling anyone exactly how much mischief he could get up to with the flowers and trees that grew on Asgard. Instead, the trickster clapped his hands together and brought them up next to his face, putting on his girliest voice, "They would look so _darling_ in my hair!"

Tyr chuckled, "Not the way you keep it."

Loki's hands dropped to his lap and he looked up at Tyr in surprise at that response. He looked back at the boy with an unreadable smile.

"You're fighting Thor, Fandral, don't try to talk yourself out of it," the teacher said, his tone making it clear that he would hear no more arguments. At that point the other three walked in, Volstagg looked wearied from having to put up with the two, and Sif had the expressionless look on her face that she always got when something had seriously upset her. Thor looked concerned and confused.

Volstagg hurried over to Fandral, "Well?"

"Loki," he answered, knowing what his friend was asking, "Thor and I are also matched- you get the day off."

Relief came over the redhead's face for a moment before he shook his head, "I do not envy him."


	6. Chapter 6

Sif walked over to Loki, who was still sitting in the grass and trying to mentally prepare himself for this. When he saw her approach he stood up and raised an eyebrow at her.

She smirked, "I'm going to enjoy this."

The trickster smirked back, "Really now, though I've always known what a _sadist_ you are, turning to Thor's brother when you can't get any from him? I guess even _that's_ not beneath you."

She went to punch him, but he was able to dodge it and grabbed her arm, quickly attempting to wrap it around her back. Sif looked at him in alarm when he did this, shocked at him actually trying to retaliate, but got out of it quickly enough.

The fight continued like that for a bit, Loki relying mostly on dodging but occasionally actually trying to fight back, it didn't take long for the more skilled fighter to get used to this and adjust her skill to make it harder for him to. Fandral had not been exaggerating, she was being worse than usual.

"Oh, will you stand still?" Sif snarled after he dodged another hit. He wanted to reply that this went against the whole idea of a fight, but was too focused on avoiding her next attack.

At some point Loki realized that, while her anger and hurt made her more vicious, it also made her slip up. She left openings she shouldn't have. Loki smirked at the realization, an action which had the delightful benefit of angering her more. She was still definitely more skilled than him, but he still managed to get into a position to jab his elbow into her nose, breaking it.

Sif stumbled back for a moment to let her eyes clear. It had been a long time since anyone had gotten in a hit on her face. And _Loki_ had been the one to do it. As soon as her eyes had cleared up, her leg shot out like a snake, aiming to kick him. He blocked it with his arms but felt a sickening crack. He'd broken bones before. This felt worse somehow, the only thing in his mind was that he needed to get that arm fixed. A quick glance at Sif made it clear that she had no interest in backing down and, while she made her next attack, Loki decided to give the shapeshifting he'd been working on a go.

In the form of an unnaturally large wolf, he easily knocked the girl back, keeping a paw on her chest so she couldn't move, and growled at her in warning, baring sharp fangs before leaping off and starting towards the door as he changed back, cradling his arm. He was aware that he had a risk of Sif coming after him, but was more concerned about getting to the healing room.

"What the hell was that?" Thor asked angrily after running over to him, Fandral close behind, limping slightly.

"Not talking now," Loki replied through clenched teeth, mentally counting the number of steps to the door and from there to the healing room and trying to work out how long from then before the shock wore off and he didn't want to think about that.

His brother looked him over at that tone, "Alright, let's get you fixed up."

* * *

Eir, Asgard's goddess of healing, sighed to see Loki there during Tyr's class. Again. "What is it this time?"

"Arm broken," he muttered, "I don't want to see it- I just want you to fix it."

"That bad?" she asked, raising an eyebrow, she smiled to the two boys who'd helped him in and to one of the couches. "Thank you, I can take it from here," she assured them as she handed Loki something to drink that would help with the pain. He muttered something about it never working but drank it anyways.

"Come on," Thor said quietly to Fandral, "He never wants anyone around." Thor turned towards the door and Fandral took a look at the pale boy, who was glancing at him out of the corner of his eyes.

"You did a number on my leg," Fandral pointed out, he wasn't lying and this is why he'd been limping, "I need to get that fixed." Thor nodded and left the room. Loki mouthed 'thank you' to him, refusing to look as Eir pulled his sleeve back. Fandral was about to smile at him, but he caught a look at the arm and winced. A bone was jutting out of the boy's arm. He did not blame Loki for not wanting to see this.

"Is it alright for him to be here?" Eir asked Loki gently as Fandral walked over to sit next to him. He nodded jerkily, eyes now squeezed shut. The goddess glanced at Fandral and raised an eyebrow before returning to her work. Any thoughts he was going to have about what that was about were distracted by Loki's hand wrapping around his arm and squeezing painfully. Fandral focused on what Eir was doing to try to distract himself from that. It made him feel nauseous, not the best distraction but the only one he had.

What felt like an eternity but was really only a few minutes later, Eir sighed, "Alright- you can look now."

Loki glanced warily at her and chose not to, but still said, "Thank you."

"Of course," she replied, standing up and rubbing her forehead, "I'll go get a bandage to wrap that up in, you're going to have to be careful with that arm for a week or so." Eir sighed and walked towards a door in the healing room that led to where they kept all their supplies and continued more to herself, "I'll have to explain that to Tyr… who knows if he'll listen."

"Hey, that wasn't so bad, right?" Fandral said weakly, only now willing to pry Loki's fingers off.

"I'm sorry for that," he said softly, letting go and placing that hand in his lap.

The blond shook his head, "It's fine." He flexed his fingers, trying to get some feeling back into them. Loki raised his eyebrows at the movement, but didn't say anything. "How are you doing?"

"I think Sif is going to murder me in my sleep," he replied, smiling slightly. He rested his head on Fandral's shoulder, feeling a bit dizzy from all this.

"That was amazing," Fandral said genuinely, remembering what had occurred, "What do you think your father will do to you over it?"

"I don't know," he said quietly, finally looking at his arm. He could tell that his sleeve, still pulled up, was bloody, but the arm looked normal enough. Swollen and bruised, but otherwise normal.

They sat in silence for a few moments. At first, Loki thought this was more because neither had anything to say, but he looked up at Fandral and saw that the other boy's face was deep in thought. After a few moments, the blond murmured, "I think I know what to do." It was clearly more to himself, but Loki was curious.

"What do you mean?"

"Ha, nothing," the blond replied with a soft laugh, shaking his head. He hadn't meant to say that out loud. He ruffled Loki's hair, ignoring the annoyed look, his mind still elsewhere, he gently placed a kiss above the boy's temple, something his mother had done for him when he was sick or hurt as a child that had always made him feel better. "Don't worry about it, just worry about feeling better."

The pale boy stared into the distance, absentmindedly fixing his hair. Eir walked back at about that time, carrying a rolled-up bandage as well as a large glass of juice. She handed the juice to him, instructing him to sip it, before taking his arm and bandaging it up firmly.

"I can rebandage it," Loki told her softly, the glass hovering near his lips as he did as he was told and sipped the juice she had gotten him. It helped him feel better. His head cleared a bit.

Eir smiled at him, "I'm aware of that. You know how to take care of it as well, but _please_ come to see me if you have any problems." She looked over to Fandral after she'd finished her job, "Did I hear that you have a hurt leg?"

"I think I just twisted my ankle," he said, lifting the hurt leg and looking at it.

The goddess chuckled, "That's good, I'd hate to have _two_ difficult healing jobs in a row. Let me take a look at that." She gently pushed back his pants leg to see the ankle better, which was rather swollen. Eir nodded, "That won't be terribly difficult at all." She was able to mostly heal it, but still bandaged it up and instructed him to be careful for the rest of the day and to have it bandaged overnight.

They were both allowed to leave at that point, and Fandral quickly found that the bandage was more of a problem for walking than his ankle. He was glad about that. He looked over at Loki after they had left the healing room, "Hey- that spell to change clothes, could you use that on me?"

The pale boy shook his head, "I need to know exactly where the clothes are for it to work." He paused and looked down slightly, "I don't even know where your room is…"

Fandral shrugged, "That's just because yours is nicer." This failed to make him feel any better about it.

"I'm going to go back to my room to wait until my father summons me with whatever punishment he's devised, "Loki said, straightening up as he tried not to let his stomach twist too much at the thought of whatever his father was going to say.

"It'll be fine," Fandral told him with his brightest of smiles. He didn't fully believe it, Odin could be harsh, but he wanted his friend to feel better.

Loki smiled slightly and nodded, "I hope that you're right."

* * *

It was relatively late when a guard came to tell Loki that Odin wished to speak with him. The trickster was surprised by this, he couldn't think of anything that his father had going on that would have postponed this. He walked out of his room nervously and saw his brother was coming out as well. This wasn't a surprise, even when only one of them was in trouble, they were almost always both summoned.

Loki smiled nervously to Thor, who gave him a reassuring smile. They walked along talking about nothing in particular for awhile. At some point, Loki finally explained to his brother what happened, and when Thor heard it he simply shook his head.

"I know she hates you, but she's never been like that," he said quietly.

"We hate each other," he reminded his brother firmly. The feeling had developed quite mutually over the years. Loki pondered about the pros and cons of telling his brother about Sif's long-term unrequited feelings for him. Nowhere on that list was concern for Sif's feelings. Actually, a rather high con was the risk of Thor returning them and Loki eventually having to put up with _Sif_ as a sister-in-law. "But, you know, she wasn't upset with _me_."

"What? What had upset her, then?" And why did Loki know about it when he didn't?

Loki laughed. "Ah…. You know that I love you dearly, brother," he said, Thor stiffened, "But you are the most obtuse person on any of the 9 worlds."

"What do you mean?" he asked, offended.

The trickster shook his head, "She has had a hopelessly unrequited crush on you since… about the time you met, really."

Thor laughed at that, "Don't be ridiculous- we're just friends."

"Yes, but she wants to be more," Loki said, managing to avoid shuddering, "And she was so furious because she'd spent all of lunch _flirting_ with you and you just ignored her."

"That's ridiculous."

"Actually, it's nauseating."

They walked the rest of the way in silence as Thor muddled over this, wishing he could think that his brother was lying for some reason. It felt strange, wanting to think the worst of his brother. He didn't care for it.

The two reached the door to the throne room and looked at each other.

Thor smiled, "It'll be okay."

Loki returned the smile and nodded, "Let's get this over with."


	7. Chapter 7

Loki hated being called into his father's throne room for things like this. Most children got called home when they did something wrong. He got called to the same place that his father laid out sentences to criminals. His brother placed a hand on his shoulder and squeezed it gently, and the two walked in.

His father was sitting at his thrown with Glungnir, his spear, in one hand. That always seemed terribly unnecessary. His mother stood at his father's side, and standing before them were Tyr and… Fandral.

Loki and Thor looked each other, both incredibly concerned now.

"Father," Loki said, bowing after they had walked in.

"Loki," Odin replied with a nod, "Do you know why I called you here?"

The trickster glanced up at Tyr, who wasn't looking at him, "I could guess."

"Your classes in fighting have not been going as I would have hoped." Loki bit his tongue to keep from shouting to let him stop taking it, he instead nodded solemnly. "But I believe we may have found a viable solution."

"Father, if I may, before we continue with this- am I going to be punished?" the trickster asked, wanting to get that over with first.

"For what?"

He looked over at Tyr before looking back at his father uncertainly, "For what happened with Sif today in class?"

"Don't be ridiculous, after hearing what happened I realize it was just self-defense. Although that incident does help me to realize that perhaps _traditional_ methods are not right for you."

Loki raised his eyebrows but didn't press, he supposed that it was better not to insist that he be punished, but it still seemed odd. "What do you suggest instead, Father?"

"Your schoolmate Fandral has offered to tutor you instead. Tyr has agreed to allowing you to try this for a month's time before measuring your progress," Odin replied. Fandral looked over at Loki for a moment. Thor gave him a small smile but the pale boy's face was emotionless, his eyes fixed on his father.

"I see."

"I expect you to train hard, my son, it is disgraceful for a son of Odin to not know how to fight."

Loki nodded, bowed again, managed to get out a farewell before turning and leaving the room. Thor and Fandral followed suit quickly, although they needn't have bothered as the boy had stopped a few steps out of the hall.

"Loki—" Fandral started, but the pale boy only held up a hand to silence him.

Loki turned his head slightly, not enough to face him but enough that he could see the boy out of the corner of his eye, "Never again take it upon yourself to make my decisions for me."

"I didn't mean for… I didn't think…"

"No, I suspect you didn't," he spat before walking down the hall.

Fandrall looked helplessly at Thor, "I didn't think your father would do that. I only wanted to ask him if he would give me permission if his son wanted to…"

Thor nodded, clapping his friend on the back and shaking his head, "Once our father decides something is best, there is no deterring him." He smiled, "Don't worry- he's more upset by father than you."

"I know, that doesn't make me feel any better," Fandral said before starting after the trickster.

* * *

"I am not angry with you," Loki said as he heard Fandral's footsteps get within earshot. He stopped walking, and waited.

The blond smiled when he heard that, stopping next to Loki, "I wouldn't blame you if you were. I swear I didn't mean for that to happen."

The pale boy looked over at him through the corner of his eyes. He smiled slightly, "When father is involved, what you mean to happen counts for little." He looked down.

Fandral sighed heavily, nodding. He had never thought about what it would be like to be the son of the ruler of Asgard. "Do you want to go back to your room?"

"Are you going to hug me again?" Loki asked warily, Fandral just shrugged. "I suppose I can take my chances…"

The two started walking again. "I only wanted to ask him if it would be possible before I suggested it to you," the blond explained.

"You got an audience with the allfather just to ask if you _might_ be able to do something?" Loki asked quietly.

"Silly, wasn't it?" Fandral asked with a self-deprecating laugh that was interrupted by Loki grabbing the boy into a hug. "But…"

"Shut up," the pale boy muttered, his head buried into the blond's shoulder. Fandral complied and returned the embrace gently.

"We should continue," he said, breaking the embrace awkwardly and starting to walk, smoothing his immaculately done hair. Fandral fell into step with him without saying anything, smiling softly.

"You're still going to be doing the class, though, right?" Loki asked when they started to approach his door, realizing something he hadn't thought of. Although he appreciated greatly his friend doing this, he couldn't accept it if it came at the cost of his own training.

Fandral nodded, "Of course, just now you don't have to and I have to spend as much time teaching you as you spend teaching me."

He chuckled, glad to hear that. "A fair trade, I suppose," he said as he opened the door to his room and stood aside to let Fandral enter. The two sat down on the same chairs they'd fallen into the habit of sitting in.

"I imagine Tyr was delighted to hear. Now not only is there an even number in his class, he doesn't have to spend every lesson bickering with you," the blond said airily.

"Oh, you're right," he said with a look of feigned horror, "I _can't_ deprive him of the pleasure of our witty repartee."

Fandral let out a great laugh, shaking his head, "I'm sure he'll find some way to carry on."

The two fell into a comfortable silence for a moment. Loki pulled him his sleeve and looked at the bandages on his arm. He wondered if Fandral would insist upon training to make sure that Loki knew how to even without the use of an arm. His writing arm, as well. He looked over at the blond, who was looking at the bandage on his own ankle with distaste.

"Thank you," Loki said softly.

Fandral looked up in confusion, "What for?"

"Speaking to my father about this. It must have been hard just to get him to see you, much less to actually speak to him."

The blond looked down, his cheeks turning slightly red. He just nodded, not really wanting gratitude for that. If things had gone his way, hopefully Loki would never have known he had done it, which was the way he had wanted it. He now understood just why Loki had tried to hide the fact he had been looking for a way to help Fandral with his reading problems.

Loki stretched a bit in his chair, "I am glad that tomorrow's a day we don't have classes."

"Want to give Sif time to cool down?" Fandral asked.

Loki shook his head, "No, I want to give her time to find out I told Thor about her crush- if I'm going to be murdered I would like to deserve it."

"You didn't," the blond groaned.

"You saw what she did to my arm," he replied.

Fandral winced at the memory of exactly what Sif had done to his arm. He shook his head, "Remind me not to get on your bad side."

"I wasn't planning on spending the next decade or so sniping with you and progressively escalating it until it gets this out of hand," Loki said vaguely, "But if you want to…"

"At least you can't cut really off my hair," he said, running a hand over it.

"I could get rid of that facial hair," he pointed out.

Fandral put a protective hand over his still growing beard, "You wouldn't dare!"

Loki tapped his cheek thoughtfully, "I _was_ thinking you'd look better clean shaven…"

Fandral chuckled, shaking his head. After a momen he said, "But, even if we don't have classes, don't think that gets you out of training."

The boy pouted, doing his best to look weak and sickly. With as pale as he was, it wasn't too difficult. "But I'm wounded!" he objected. The blond smirked at him and he rolled his eyes, giving up the act, "Yeah, I figured you'd want to take the opportunity to teach me how to deal with not being able to use my arm."

Fandral was delighted to hear that, he'd expected to get much more of a fight about this. "Make sure you get enough rest tonight then, all right?"

"Oh I don't know," Loki said, "I _was_ thinking about staying up all night reading." This was actually something of a habit for him. He didn't do it all the time, but often enough. And while he said it more teasingly, this _had_ been his plan.

"Do I need to stay here and make sure you get enough sleep?" the blond teased back, hoping to get a grimace at the thought from his friend.

Instead, he got a nonchalant "If you want to, I won't stop you." He looked at the black-haired boy curiously, Loki's face was at ease and there was no indication that this was said in jest. Fandral fell silent, not really sure how to feel about that. It wasn't exactly an invitation, but it was likely the closest Loki got to one.

He raised an eyebrow and warily asked, "Really?"

Loki blinked at the question before furrowing his brows. He shrugged and mumbled, "I guess." The boy hadn't thought this was a terribly odd thing to say, but Fandral reacted as if it was. He wasn't sure what to do about it. An uncomfortable squirming feeling filled his stomach. It had been a few weeks since he'd been reminded of how bad he was with this sort of social situation. "Is that bad?"

"No, I just didn't expect you to say that," he said hastily as he saw his friend starting to close up again.

The pale boy shrugged again and looked away, "I'm not telling you to- but if you were set on it I wouldn't be terribly bothered."

He smiled softly at the boy who managed an uncomfortable smile back. "Do you think I should?"

"No," he replied, resting his chin on his fist and glancing away. Fandral was surprised to find himself feeling a bit hurt at that. "I really did want to spend most of the night reading."

The blond looked up as he realized what Loki had just said and laughed. He shook his head, "I think after the day you had, I'll leave you to it."

"Oh… _thank_ you for deciding not to intrude on my privacy," he drawled, causing Fandral to start, but he chuckled afterwards to make it clear that he was joking.

The blond shook his head and stood up, stretching slightly, "I think I should head off. Do you want to get started after lunch?"

"That's fine."


	8. Chapter 8

Despite his intentions and great efforts, Loki wasn't terribly able to read much that night. His arm still bothered him too much and he had a difficult time finding a comfortable position that allowed the book to stay open, him to easily turn pages and read that didn't hurt his arm. He gave up after about half an hour and got an early night's sleep.

This was a good thing, it turned out, as he was rather roughly awoken by his brother the next morning. He responded to this intrusion by throwing a pillow, which Thor dodged rather easily, and grumbling about wanting more sleep.

"Come on, get up, I want to make sure you get a good breakfast!" his brother insisted, yanking the blankets off. Loki shivered but got out of bed, grumbling the entire time. Somehow, Thor was a morning person. He hated it. "Good, now get dressed so we can go," Thor added once his brother was on his feet.

"Let me wash up first," Loki said with a resigned sigh.

Thor groaned, "It's just _breakfast_."

"Some of us actually care about how we look no matter what time of day it is," he replied, noticing that his brother was following him and he gave him an exhasperated glare, "Do you mind?"

"What? Why do you care? We bathed together when we were young, it's not like there's anything I haven't seen."

"That was _ages_ ago!"

"And there is a communal bath that everyone else uses after training, so it really isn't that big a deal."

"I don't care, just get out," he insisted, trying to shove his brother out of the doorway. It was a rather futile attempt considering the large strength difference between them, but he felt better making it. Thor finally relented, causing Loki to stumble before closing and locking the door with a huff.

Longer than Thor wanted, Loki finally came out, fully dressed and his arm rebandaged. He was more or less ready for his brother to drag him around Asgard, which Thor did rather eagerly. It was actually nice, for all of Loki's complaining. After a breakfast of Thor fussing over how much and what Loki ate, they ended up lazing about outside in one of Asgard's many splendid gardens.

"I haven't seen you this relaxed in some time," Thor commented after they'd been there not saying anything for awhile. He smirked, "Maybe you need to be severely wounded more often."

"It's the glory of knowing I never have to take Tyr's blasted class again," he replied with a blissful smile.

"So long as you can improve enough in a month to convince our father that this is working better."

Loki scowled, "I suppose there _is_ that…"

"I'll help you, you know."

He shook his head, "Thank you for the offer… But I don't think that would be a wise idea."

Thor looked at his brother sadly for a moment but knew better than to press. The two fell into a mostly comfortable silence. After a few moments of this, Loki glanced over at his brother and quietly asked, "May I ask you something?"

"Of course," he replied, glancing over in curiosity. It wasn't common for Loki to ask permission like that.

The pale boy remained silent for a moment, "How affectionate is Fandral usually?"

"I've never really thought about it," he admitted, "We play-fight a lot, the three of us, if that's what you mean. Why do you ask?"

"No reason," he replied with a reassuring smile. That didn't really answer any of the questions he had, but he didn't feel like asking further. Thor raised an eyebrow, wondering what caused that question. Of course, if he really wanted to know he knew that his brother was the wrong person to ask. Loki had never been good at opening up, even to Thor.

They spent a few hours like that, occasionally chatting but mostly just enjoying each others' company. It had been some time since they'd done this, and Loki tried not to think about the fact that it took one of them being badly hurt for it to happen.

At some point, Thor either noticed how much time had passed or started to get hungry and declared it time for lunch. Again Loki grumbled about having to get up when he was so comfortable, but this time was much more agreeable about it.

They went to the hall that a good chunk of Asgard was eating in, most meals were communal, and Thor noticed his three friends were already there. He glanced over at his brother, "I should probably talk to Sif."

"That's fine with me," Loki said, turning to leave.

Thor quickly grabbed his arm, "Come on, you need to eat. If you want, I'll stay with you."

"I can take care of myself," he said with a sigh, but at the look on his brother's face he added, "I will stay. Go talk to her."

Although he didn't want to stay, he supposed that going back on his word wasn't the greatest idea now either. He glanced over at his brother, who had gone straight to his friends and was saying something to Fandral. Loki's lips tightened, he could guess what Thor was saying. Sure enough, after Thor and Sif walked away together, Fandral got up and walked over to Loki.

"I don't need a babysitter," he said coldly, glaring at his brother with his arms crossed.

Fandral smiled at him, "I didn't think you did, your brother's just worried about you. Come sit with us anyways?"

"I…" _don't really have a choice_ , he didn't finish the sentence out loud, "All right."

Sif had been sitting between Fandral and Volstagg, leaving an empty seat between them that Loki filled uncomfortably, sitting down stiffly. Volstagg raised an eyebrow about this but didn't make any comment, deciding it'd be easier to treat it as a normal event.

"How's that arm doing? I heard Sif did quite a number on it," he asked with a light chuckle.

Loki nodded, "It's been better, admittedly."

"You did some damage to her as well," Fandral told him, trying not to smile, "Broken nose, bruised chest…"

"Which she took out on me, thanks to you three," Volstagg reminded him.

Loki was able to eat in relatively uninterrupted silence as the two continued their conversation. He'd learned long ago how to fade into the background even when he was right next to other people. This was usually helped by Thor's rather dominating presence, but it wasn't necessary. If Fandral noticed, he didn't do anything to try and drag the trickster back into the conversation. Loki was thankful for this. Just being there was a bit more than he cared for, he was hardly up for a conversation with someone he barely knew.

* * *

"You haven't forgotten that I still want to do training today, right?" Fandral asked this some time after they had finished lunch. The two had ended up wandering the halls of Asgard rather aimlessly, and it seemed like a good time to make sure.

Loki shook his head, "No, but I was starting to wonder if you had."

"It's not good to exercise too soon after you've eaten," he said with a smile.

"What qualifies as too soon?"

The blond thought about it for a moment, "Well, at this pace, I imagine that if we started towards your room, by the time we got there we'd be fine."

"That's convenient," he murmured, stopping and looking around, realizing that he wasn't even sure where they were or which way they should be heading. It didn't take long to figure out, there were very few parts of Asgard he didn't know well.

"Not surprisingly," Fandral said with a slight laugh, "I realized that, and it's why I brought it up."

The two started walking in the proper direction, not in any particular hurry. After a few moments Fandral thought of something and looked over at Loki, "Er… you wouldn't happen to have a sling or something for your arm? That would probably make this easier." He probably should have thought about this while they were in the healing room. Or any point before now.

"I do, don't worry," the pale boy replied, "I have most things that the healing room does. I just lack the skill to heal myself when it comes to some things…" he sighed wistfully at that last part. He really didn't care for being healed and would have very much preferred being able to do it himself. Call it a dislike for having to rely on other people or desire to be as self-sufficient as possible.

"I'd be disturbed if anyone could heal themself when their arm was like yours was," Fandral said gently.

Loki smiled at him, "That is true. Thank you for staying with me, from the look on your face it must not have been easy."

The blond looked away, still smiling, "Hey, I just needed to get my own leg healed…" He looked up at Loki, "Thank you for letting me stay."

"I should warn you, though, that if you break this arm again today, I _will_ find a way to smash several of yours."

Fandral was going to laugh, but the pale boy's face was too serious and he didn't quite manage to. He instead cleared his throat and nodded, "While that was _not_ part of the plan, I'm still glad that you have a sling because that'll make it a lot easier."

Loki smiled gently at him, and the blond relaxed slightly.

* * *

Fandral managed to spend about 3 hours training Loki without breaking or otherwise really harming his arm. He did fall on it once, but it was not as bad as it could have been. Fandral actually had not intended to spend that long, but had lost track of time and ended up continuing until Loki complained of being too tired to go on. Well, until he complained of it and actually meant it rather than just complaining out of habit.

After this, Loki had gone to his bed and collapsed on it. Fandral followed suit, although he was in considerably better shape than Loki and not nearly as tired. The trickster spent a few minutes mumbling about his hatred for exercise and all things related to it, and after enough of that Fandral looked over to him and said, "Read me something."

" _You_ read something," he groaned back.

"You're so much better at it!"

"Let me rest!" Loki insisted. He looked over at Fandral, who was giving him a pleading, puppy dog look. He groaned and sat up, grabbing a book from the shelves that were within arms reach of his bed. He handed it to Fandral before lying back down, "You read it."

"What is it?" the blond asked, frowning at it.

"It's from Midgard, about someone called 'Robin Hood', I think you'll like it," he replied.

Fandral raised an eyebrow, then smirked, "Do you want me to read it to you?"


	9. Chapter 9

Sif was not certain what to think when her friend had asked to speak to her alone. It was hardly a common occurrence, and she couldn't help but think he'd just tell her to lay off his brother a bit. If that was the case, she was annoyed. He could easily have said that in front of Fandral and Volstagg.

"What is it, Thor?" she asked after they stopped walking, doing her best to look composed.

Thor smiled at his friend sadly, "I believe that yesterday you were rather upset because of me."

She blinked at this, it had certainly not been what she had expected. Now she had to think of how to respond. She looked down slightly, "I'm afraid so."

"I believe I know why, but I don't want to find out I was jumping to the wrong conclusion," he said quietly, not really sure how to say that.

Sif stiffened slightly at that, not sure if she wanted to admit out loud why she had gotten so upset. After a moment of hesitation, she scolded herself for such cowardice- this was not how a warrior of Asgard acted. She took a deep breath before explaining, "It was because I had been trying to get you to notice my flirtations and had not been able to. Really, it was not your fault."

Thor did his best not to show the sinking feeling he felt when he'd heard that. A mix of guilt, doubt, and confusion started swirling in him as he tried to figure out how to feel about this. "Nevertheless, I do apologize that I hurt you, even though it was unintentional."

"Thank you," she said with a stiff smile. She glanced away for a moment before deciding she wanted straight answers. Sif looked her friend in the eyes, "Thor- do you think it's possible for anything romantic to happen between us?"

He had been hoping she wouldn't ask that, though he knew she would. He glanced away slightly, "I admit that I've never considered it. In some ways I don't really think of you as a woman—"

"You don't?" she asked, raising an eyebrow. She gestured to her figure, which was not quite fully developed but coming along, nicely complimented by the muscles she'd developed from training so hard, "You don't see _this_ as belonging to a woman?"

Thor wondered if he could possibly have said something worse. "I, ah, didn't quite mean it that way. You have been a very close and dear friend since childhood, you have never been just a woman to me- you have been a strong and fierce warrior who I care for very much."

Sif smiled at this, but raised an eyebrow, "That shouldn't stop you from thinking of me as a woman, Thor."

"You're right, I apologize," he said with a heavy sigh, "I don't know how to answer your question, Sif. I had never thought about it, but I wouldn't say it's impossible."

She nodded silently, not sure how to feel. She wished that he had just said no. It would have hurt, but then she could move on and get over it. Sif managed to smile at him, "Thank you, I believe that nothing else needs to be said." What she meant by this was that she wanted to leave and get some time to herself now.

Thor nodded. He knew his friend too well to know that the smile wasn't quite genuine, "Of course, I'll see you later."

She only managed a nod to that before leaving, feeling tears prick slightly at her eyes. It felt like Thor had only said it was possible out of pity, and the thought of her friend pitying her hurt more than any punch.

* * *

Loki was rather pleased to find out that he had been right, and Fandral was rather enthralled with the idea of a man who stole from the rich to help the poor, who fought those who had been corrupted by power and, of course, who got the beautiful maiden. Fandral's exuberance for the last bit bothered Loki somewhat, he brushed it off at just being a general apathy towards romance as it had never been a subject he had any interest in. Either way, there were a few other mortal books he would have to suggest to his friend.

The blond's fondness for the book started to get annoying an hour or so later, after Loki had recovered enough from the exercise, bathed, and was now trying to get Fandral to put the book down and start studying.

"No, I want to finish this," Fandral insisted angrily, holding the book out of Loki's reach.

The pale boy rolled his eyes and sighed heavily, "You agreed to study!"

"We have all night to study, please let me finish this," he insisted, pouting slightly and holding the book to his chest.

Loki ran a hand through his hair, "Fine, after dinner, then."

"When _is_ dinner? I'm not sure what time it is…"

"I believe in another hour or so."

Fandral frowned, doubting very much that he could finish the book in that time. He sighed, "Fine- after dinner, then. Even if I haven't finished it."

"You can take it with you, you know, finish reading it later."

"Thank you," the blond said with a fond smile, "But I really want to finish it as soon as possible… To find out everything that's going to happen."

"I know the feeling," Loki assured him with a laugh. "Go back to reading, I'll let you know when we should go to dinner."

Fandral opened the book at that then paused before continuing, "You're actually going to eat with me?"

"It's not that ridiculous an idea, is it?"

"You've never been willing to before."

The pale boy looked down, he couldn't really deny that, and he just shrugged, "Well, I am now."

Fandral smiled at him, but returned to the book rather than saying anything. Not having anything better to do, Loki moved up to where Fandral was sitting and sat next to him so he could read over his friend's shoulder. The blond smiled softly at that.

* * *

Meals in Asgard were not a terribly fun time for Loki, but dinner was often the worst. Loudest, rowdiest, and generally least enjoyable. As a result, he often would skip dinner entirely, but he got the feeling that if he were going to keep up with this much physical exertion, this would not be an option for long. He would likely never admit it out loud, but he was very glad to have Fandral going with him. He was also very amused that, as they walked the halls to the dining hall, it was his friend with his nose in a book. That was an odd reversal.

It was only after they sat down at the table that Fandral looked away from the pages and gave Loki a very confused look, "How do you manage to read _and_ eat at the same time?"

"By being very selective in what you eat," he replied simply, before smiling in amusement as his friend furrowed his brow, clearly trying to decide if it was worth it.

Before any decisions could be made, Thor came over, sitting down in the chair next to Loki and placing his head on his brother's shoulder without saying anything. The pale boy's lips tightened for a moment before he put on a smile and leaned his head against his brother's, "How'd the talk with Sif go?"

"You're pretty smart, good at saying the right thing even if you don't admit it. How are we related?" Thor asked, rubbing his forehead, "How are we related when I can say the _worst_ possible thing?"

"Oh, I'm sure there are worse things you could have said," Loki said with a smirk, "I trust you didn't say anything _I_ would say."

"That's true," Thor agreed, sighing, "Although I did tell her that I didn't think of her as a woman."

Fandral looked over at his friend, "You're _joking_."

He jumped slightly and sat up, he hadn't realized Fandral was there. He got over the shock quickly and shook his head sadly, "I wish that I were."

Loki sighed and crossed his arms, "I think I did that once when we were young… She got pretty mad at me."

"What'd she do?" Thor asked.

"It all blurs together- I imagine she won't do anything that bad to you, though, you are still friends."

"So he should know better," Fandral pointed out, shaking his head. He still couldn't really believe Thor had said that. The boy shrank slightly in his seat; it was not a common sight.

"I hadn't thought of that," the pale boy murmured, before glancing over at his brother, "You knew enough to apologize though, right?"

"I did. Badly, I think, but I did," he said with a nod.

"Better than me, then," Loki assured him.

Thor glanced at Fandral for confirmation of that, unwilling to trust his brother's judgment when it came to Sif, the blond just shrugged. "It's hard to say, she was pretty upset with you already."

"I know… There's nothing I can do about that, though," he said with a sigh. He shook his head and looked to Fandral again, "I don't know how to tell if I'm interested in her like that. I'd only ever thought of her as a friend- I assumed she'd break my arm if I did anything else."

"Think about it now that you know she wouldn't," he replied with a shrug. This was not his area of expertise. Although he was quite the charmer, and enjoyed flirting with ladies on Midgard whenever they went, actual relationships were not something he had experience with. With all his reading, it was actually possible that _Loki_ knew more about this than Fandral. That seemed unlikely, though, he couldn't really imagine the pale boy reading books about romance.

Thor nodded, that actually seemed like a pretty good suggestion, "I think I will try that, thanks." He turned his attention to his brother, who was looking at the table, tapping his chin thoughtfully, his lips curled up slightly. Thor sighed heavily, he knew that look, "Brother, tell me that you aren't thinking of new ways to torment Sif."

"She's likely thinking of ways to do the same," he retorted, the mischievous grin still there. That wasn't true and he knew it, she was probably too upset with the whole Thor situation to be bothered with him.

"Okay, then can you at least tell me you aren't thinking of toying with her emotions in regards to romance, because that just won't end well."

"That and it'd be terribly easy for her to get back at you," Fandral pointed out, "She'd just have to kiss you."

Loki wrinkled his nose at the thought, "Eurgh, you're right. Not worth it."

Thor rolled his eyes, "I know that I'm older than you, but you should be at the point where you _want_ to kiss girls, you know."

"There is a _very_ big difference between wanting to kiss people and wanting to kiss _Sif_ ," he replied, shuddering to emphasize the girl's name.

"So you _do_?" his brother asked with a wicked grin, bracing an arm on the table, leaning his chin on his fist, and looking intently at Loki. " _Who_ do you want to kiss then?"

Fandral was rather startled to see just how _red_ Loki's face could get, from a combination of embarrassment and anger in this case. It was startling and made his green eyes more noticeable.

"Thor…" Loki said warningly and very, very softly. His lips were otherwise pressed into a tight line and it took some effort to open them.

His brother sighed, sitting back in his chair, "Fine… I'll wait until later," he looked at Loki, who was starting to calm down but was still glaring at him from the corner of his eyes, "But you know that it _is_ my prerogative as your brother to harass you about such things."

The pale boy didn't say anything in reply to that, but he pursed his lips and glared rather fixedly at the table, not caring very much for the thought of his brother bothering him about this.


	10. Chapter 10

"Is there anyone you like in that way?" Fandral asked this after they'd done their studying, as they were both leaving the library. He still had the Robin Hood book in his hand, page marked, but didn't feel the same need to finish it. They were walking back to Loki's quarters, Fandral's invitation to go was assumed at this point.

Loki's lips tightened into a thin line again, "Why do you want to know?"

Fandral shrugged, looking at the book uncertainly, "Well, it's something friends generally want to know."

"I don't particularly care about any of your exploits," Loki pointed out, his voice was detached and impersonal. For the first time in a while, Fandral had hoped never to hear it like that again. "Not that I have much of a choice, you're rather infamous."

"Undeservedly, though," he said with a nervous laugh.

He raised his eyebrow, "Oh?"

The blond rolled his eyes and sighed, "Just other people assuming." He smirked with a slight chuckle, "Although I _am_ quite the charmer when I want to be, I've just never done anything beyond flirting."

Loki stared at him for a moment in disbelief, "You're joking."

"No, I'm not," Fandral said, his tone of more annoyance than he meant. The rumors rarely bothered him, sometimes he relished in them, but the level of disbelief in Loki's voice grated on him. He took a deep breath and stopped walking, holding the book up with a soft smile, "I'm a romantic. Even if I can charm any Midgardian maiden- and quite a few Asgardian ones- that doesn't mean I'd want to do anything beyond flirt a bit," He sighed wistfully, looking away, "Maybe it's foolish, but I think that that sort of thing should be done with someone special."

Loki had stopped as well, and stayed silent and expressionless as Fandral spoke. What his friend said made sense, although he'd never given it much thought. He wasn't sure how to respond. So he tilted his head to the side, "And is there anyone special you have in mind?"

The blond felt his cheeks heat up at the question and he looked back at Loki uncertainly. He mumbled something or other, knowing it was unintelligible.

"And that's why I don't like people asking me," the pale boy said firmly, crossing his arms.

Fandral glared at him for a moment, "All of that just to prove a point?"

"What?" the other boy was taken aback by that. Yes, he was good at scheming, but he could hardly have orchestrated that conversation, "No…" he said, suddenly feeling rather helpless, "When you responded like that, that's how I feel when people ask me."

"Oh," he replied quietly, feeling guilty for thinking so ill of his friend. "I see what you mean, then… I apologize for asking."

"You're better about it than Thor," he pointed out with a sigh as he thought about his brother. The two started walking again, and Loki glanced over at Fandral before quietly saying, "What you said made sense, though. I don't think it's foolish."

"Thanks," he replied with a small smile. The two walked in silence until they reached Loki's room. Once inside, Fandral felt like poking the issue again, " _Would_ you tell me if there were someone you liked?"

"Would you?"

"I suppose it depends on who it was," he replied thoughtfully, neither surprised nor bothered that Loki had dodged the question.

Raising an eyebrow, he asked if Fandral had any thoughts on who he'd like that would prompt him either to or not to tell Loki. Fandral laughed in response to that, shaking his head, knowing he should have seen that coming. He thought on it for awhile, "Well, obviously, if it was Sif I'd have to tell you just to see your response."

"I'd drag you to Midgard and have you committed in one of the places they keep their insane," he replied.

"Knowing full-well they couldn't hold me," he pointed out with a grin, before thinking on it more, "I don't think you'd care if it came to most people on Midgard- just because you don't know them. You wouldn't care if it were Volstagg, either. I don't think I'd tell you if I liked Thor." He laughed again at the look Loki gave him at that suggestion. He hesitated for a moment before going on, "I don't know if I'd tell you if I liked you, though."

"It's a good thing that isn't likely to happen, then," he replied simply, the way one would state an accepted fact or comment on nice weather.

Fandral frowned slightly at his friend, "Any reason you say that?"

"It just isn't," he said again, not sure why this was a question, "I can't really imagine why anyone would."

"You think too little of yourself."

Loki raised an eyebrow, "Why do you say that?"

"Because you do. You're intelligent, witty, and have a sense of humor even if you'd never admit it," he insisted before looking away, "You're the only person who didn't tell me that I was just lazy or lying when I said I had trouble with reading, and actually worked to find a solution. You're a good person despite yourself."

Loki didn't feel like saying anything in response to that, not entirely sure how to feel. Meanwhile Fandral seemed to have gotten lost in thought, his brow furrowed as he stared at nothing in particular.

After a few minutes of this, Loki finally said, "Fandral…?"

He looked up with a slight jolt, then shook his head, "Sorry, my mind was elsewhere."

"Is there something wrong?"

"I think not," he said with an uncertain smile, "I just thought of something but it's really nothing to concern yourself over."

Loki furrowed his brow slightly. Fandral was hardly what one might call a skilled liar. There also weren't many subjects that he wouldn't speak with the pale boy about, leaving him to wonder. He didn't press, though, Fandral would tell him if and when he wanted to.

* * *

The next day, Fandral sat farthest from Loki during their morning classes. This was an odd occurrence, and left poor Volstagg as the only one sitting between an uncomfortable Thor and a hurt Sif. It was no surprise that Thor had moved his chair over towards his brother as subtly as he could when sitting down. Loki glanced over at Fandral, but the blond was working with Volstagg to try and keep Sif relatively calm or even happy.

The same was going to happen at lunch, and Loki was not at all surprised when his brother followed him out of the classroom. He glanced over at his brother, "I wasn't planning on eating, actually."

"Oh, really?" Thor asked, gently nudging his brother's hurt arm. This brought a wince of pain and he raised an eyebrow, "You're eating, you need your strength."

"I need not to be in the middle of anything that might start between you and Sif," he insisted, rubbing his arm and looking away, trying not to admit that his brother was right even though he knew it.

Thor sighed, "Nothing will happen, I promise."

"All right," he replied quietly. His brother was right, nothing in particular happened over lunch. It went about the same as any of their lunches did, only with slightly more tension.

The rest of the day, really, went on rather uneventfully. Well, with the slight exception of him privately celebrating not having to go to Tyr's class. However, with regards to Fandral training him and his helping his friend study, while it went as it usually did, he couldn't shake the feeling that something was off. Only in very small ways, things that were hard to put his finger on yet added to a growing doubt.

Again he asked if anything was wrong, again he was told that it was nothing to concern himself with. Now he grew somewhat annoyed by that answer, in addition to feeling concern despite Fandral's insistence he shouldn't.

After they finished in the library, Loki stopped Fandral before he could head out. He took out the Robin Hood book, and offered it to him with a smile, "You left this in my room last night."

The blond raised his eyebrows in surprise, taking the book. He smiled, "Thank you, I'd forgotten about that."

"You know that if you ever wanted to talk to me about anything…" the pale boy started, concern clear in his voice and face. He let it trail off purposefully.

Fandral smiled at him, "I know." He tucked the book under his arm, "I'll see you tomorrow."

Loki nodded quietly, "Be well."

* * *

As he walked away from his friend, he was painfully aware that his insistences that all was well were far from convincing. The 'Be well' made it clear enough, he had never heard Loki say it before.

It wasn't entirely a lie, though. Things weren't _un_ well, he just had some things on his mind he had not expected to have on his mind. It wasn't a terribly unusual occurrence.

He had always been a bit of a romantic, daydreaming of heroic adventures that, with Thor, he had started to actually live out. This also meant that he could be prone to flights of fancy, and this was probably just one of them.

He felt close to Loki, certainly. And grateful to him for the help he'd given so willingly. It was odd how the person who used to be such a source of torture had ended up helping him so much and without obvious judgment. Occasionally he would tease Fandral, but watching Loki nervously try to poke fun at someone without going so far as to be hurtful was terribly endearing and when he teased about a sensitive subject, the pale boy was quick to apologize.

When Thor or the others teased him about something that he'd rather not have people tease him about, pointing this out generally only made it worse. He loved his friends dearly but they really could be too harsh when they felt something shouldn't matter.

The way that Loki made sure to gingerly learn what did and didn't hurt his friend, and avoided what did, was a nice change of pace.

No, there really was no surprise that his brain would entertain thoughts of the pale boy that were a bit more than friendly. It just came up a bit unexpectantly. He'd had crushes before, of course, they always made it a bit hard to concentrate. This one was just more annoying because he spent so much time with Loki, but it would go away in its own time.

Hopefully.

Fandral glanced at the book he was holding with a sigh, he had no interest in finding out Loki's response to this particular crush. He couldn't shake the feeling that part of Loki's unwillingness to talk about whether or not he liked anyone in a romantic sense was that the boy genuinely had no interest in such things. As much as his mind could fantasize about it, when it came down to logic he really couldn't see his friend being interested in romance or anything that went around in it. At most, he could see Loki being interested in it in a scientific sort of way. As some curiosity to study.

The best case scenario would most likely involve Loki being somewhat flattered but mostly confused by Fandral's feelings. Of course, the blond's mind was at no loss of horrible worst case scenarios to frighten him with.

Hopefully this either would not last very long, or he would at least find a way to act normal despite this.


	11. Chapter 11

The next few days went much the same, which meant that Loki's concern and suspicion grew more. This was not a terribly pleasant experience. Over that time, Sif seemed to have calmed down enough and was once more on speaking terms with Thor, so for the first time in awhile Loki was able to eat alone again.

The day after Sif and Thor reconciled, well to some degree, brought an interesting surprise. Loki had pretty much always been the first to get to class in the morning, continuing to read until Bragi told him to put his book down. On this day, when he arrived he saw that Fandral was already there. With a book of his own. Which he was reading with a rather dreamy smile on his face as he read it.

The pale boy looked around uncertainly, trying to work out what to do with this. He walked over to him but didn't sit down and asked, "What are you reading?"

Fandral jumped slightly at that, glancing up at his friend with a slightly embarrassed smile and closing the book with one hand, a finger marking the page. He glanced back at the book, "Oh, it's nothing you'd be interested in."

Loki smiled at him, "You seem to be really enjoying it, so I'd still like to know what it is."

"It's similar to that Robin Hood book you let me borrow- I finished it, by the way, I need to get it back to you."

"You can keep it."

"Oh, thank you," he said with a fond smile before remembering that he was answering a question, "It's about adventure- fighting evil, saving and winning the heart of the maiden, that sort of thing."

Loki laughed softly as he sat down in his usual chair, which was also next to the one his friend was sitting in, "You're right, that isn't the sort of thing I'm interested in."

"Not one for fighting," he agreed.

"And not terribly interested in the romance bits, either," he added quietly.

Fandral looked down, his smile turned sad, "Is that just in books, or…?"

"I don't know," Loki said softly, "I haven't thought much about it."

The other three walked into the room at that point, causing Fandral to shove the book under the table and greet them with a warm smile. Loki opened his book and glanced over at them. Thor and Sif were visibly awkward towards each other, but both were clearly trying to pretend not to be. Volstagg looked concerned for the two, and Loki imagined him having to distract them whenever the two got too awkward or started near an uncomfortable topic.

If he was right, Loki did not envy his position.

Bragi seemed to pick up on the tension in the room and went easier on the class than he usually did. Of course, this involved asking Loki all of the hard questions, something which bothered him more than he would admit.

On the way to lunch, Fandral stayed after his 3 friends had left and nervously looked at Loki as the pale boy took his time getting out of his seat, "Would you mind terribly if I ate with you today?"

"No, I don't think so," he replied quietly, smiling slightly, "Are you sick of dealing with the drama between my brother and Sif?"

The two started walking together and Fandral nodded, "I also wondered, since you'd been eating with Thor lately, if you might like the company now that he and Sif had reconciled."

"That would be thoughtful if you didn't know I liked being alone sometimes," Loki said to him with a playful smile to make it clear he was just teasing.

Fandral shrugged, "Maybe I'd just like to spend more time with you."

Loki sighed at that, "Lately… it seems like you go between enjoying my company and wishing you weren't around me." They both stopped, Fandral looking at him apologetically as the pale boy looked at him sadly, "Will you ever tell me what's been bothering you?"

"It's…" he started mumbling incoherently, and Loki pursed his lips in annoyance. Fandral looked away.

"Is it something that I did?" he asked, turning to face his friend. He took hold of one of Fandral's shoulders and pushed it so the boy was facing him, "Why are you acting like this around me?"

"You didn't do anything," he said gently, aware that this was the closest he had been to Loki, beyond when teaching him to fight, in some time.

"Then what is it?" the pale boy asked sadly, green eyes looking over blue for some hint of what was going on. The blond met the gaze for only a moment before leaning over and gently pressing his lips to his friend's.

It took only a second for his brain to register what he had just done and that this was probably not the right answer. He pulled back and placed a hand over his mouth, looking away, "I... I'm sorry, I shouldn't have…"

"You kissed me," Loki said blankly, his face rather expressionless, he'd brought his hand up so his fingers were touching his lips gently.

"I'm sorry."

They stood there for a few moments as Loki started to realize what had actually happened. Fandral fidgeted uncomfortably, looking away as he waited for the reaction.

" _You_ **kissed** me…" Loki repeated, frowning. Fandral resisted the urge to roll his eyes. The pale boy glanced up uncertainly at his friend, "Why did you do that?"

He sighed heavily and looked down, "That is why I've been acting so strange around you. I'm sorry."

"What do you mean?"

"Do I have to say it?" Fandral asked weakly. Loki nodded warily, and his friend bit his lip for a moment, "I seem to have developed a crush on you."

Loki thought about this for a moment before asking, "But… why?"

"It just sort of happened…" he replied uncertainly, not really sure what to do with that question.

"Oh," the pale boy replied, not really sure what else to say, "We should get to lunch." Fandral gave him a somewhat hurt look and he smiled nervously, " _You_ still have Tyr's class in an hour, do you really want to do that on an empty stomach?"

"No, I suppose I don't," he agreed, glancing away.

"If you want, we can talk about it later, okay?"

He nodded silently at that before glancing at his friend, "You still don't mind eating with me?"

"Why would I?"

Fandral smiled slightly at that, and the two began walking again. After some time, Loki looked over at his friend, "I can go with you most of the way to Tyr's class if you want, I need to go to the healing room so Eir can verify that my arm's healed."

"Looking forward to learning how to fight with _both_ arms?" he asked with a laugh.

Loki scowled at that as best he could with a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth, "I'm more looking forward to you hitting that arm _on purpose_."

"I haven't done that since…"

"Yesterday."

He paused for a moment, "I _am_ sorry about that."

Loki smirked, "I know, you said so every time it happened."

* * *

Fandral did want to talk about it later, and they made arrangements to meet somewhere after Tyr's class was finished. Fandral was actually immensely glad that this was the only thing he had to do that day, he wouldn't've been able to do anything else. But he'd been training to fight long enough that he could just focus on that and nothing else for the duration. Of course, every time Tyr called them to stop to correct something, his mind drifted and filled with a hundred different thoughts, but that only lasted as long as the time out did.

The walk to meet Loki was not nearly so easy. He didn't expect anything from it. There'd been no indications that Loki might return his feelings and really the best thing he could hope for things to go on as they had been, now with his friend aware of what the 'problem' was.

Of course, this didn't stop him from coming up with horrible scenarios that the boy had only been pretending to act normal and now hated him.

Loki had suggested that they meet in one of the many gardens of Asgard. One that Fandral had always known about but never actually visited. It wouldn't surprise him id this was true for much of the populace. If anyone in Asgard knew what public places you could find solitude in, it was Loki.

The garden was quite beautiful, they all were. It wasn't particularly noteworthy in its beauty, though. That's probably why no one really came here. It was at the edge of Asgard, though, and had a beautiful view of the cosmos beyond.

He let himself be distracted by that sight for a few moments before looking around to see if Loki was there already. It was no surprise to find that he indeed was. The pale boy was sitting on a bench with a book open on his lap, but Fandral could tell he wasn't reading it. His eyes kept flitting around, looking for something, and he had a hand against one of the pages, his fingers twitching nervously. It was nice to know that Fandral wasn't the only one who was anxious about how this would go.

The blond walked over and made himself known with a nervous cough. Loki looked up and smiled at him as calmly as he could manage. Fandral sat down next to him and the two sat in silence, not sure what to say, for several minutes.

At some point, Loki glanced over shyly and said, "What does… what does having a crush feel like?"

"I, ah, I'm not sure how to explain it," he replied, thinking about it, "It's hard to get the person out of your head. Whenever they're around you're both ecstatic to be near them and terrified that you'll make a fool of yourself in front of them. It feels wonderful… but it can be a bit terrible at the same time." He paused and looked down, "It's mostly terrible when you know it isn't returned."

The pale boy frowned at him, "That can't be right, though."

"What do you mean?" the blond asked, glancing out of the corner of his eye.

Loki looked away and shrugged before quietly saying, "That's how I feel about you." Fandral felt as though he should say something in response to this, but all he managed to do was turn and stare in disbelief, half waiting for the boy to laugh and say he was lying. Instead, he looked down at the book he had been trying, or at least pretending, to read and furrowed his brow, "But… I've never wanted to kiss you."

"What have you wanted?" the blond boy asked softly, not really sure how to feel about that.

The pale boy glanced at him nervously for a moment before staring intently at his book. "I just… want to be around you. And close to you. And…" his face was completely flushed and he squeezed his eyes shut, "I, ehm, I guess kind of want to hold you… a lot."

"You do?"

He looked away and just nodded stiffly.

"Then why do you act like you hate hugs?" he asked quietly, gently placing a hand on his friend's shoulder.

Loki looked over at him before casting his eyes down slightly, "Because… I didn't want to make it worse."


	12. Chapter 12

"I didn't want to make it worse."

Several responses came to Fandral at once at that, but all he could really manage to do was turn around and stare at the cosmos for a few moments. After awhile he managed to get out, "Why?"

"Because eventually you'll realize you don't need me and I won't really see you after that," he replied dully, now also staring out at what lay beyond the border of Asgard, his eyes glassy.

Fandral turned to him and placed a hand on his chin, gently guiding it so Loki was looking at him, although his expression did not change. "You can't believe that."

He smiled sadly and glanced away, though he didn't move in a way that might cause Fandral to move his hand, "It's hard to believe you'd rather spend time with me than my brother unless you had to."

Part of Fandral wanted to smack Loki, it was how he was used to handling his other friends when they were being this ridiculous. He knew it was the wrong thing to do, though. He looked over Loki's face for a moment before gingerly placing a kiss on his friend's forehead. He hadn't minded when he'd done that in the healing room, Fandral hoped he wouldn't mind now. "Tell me what I have to do to make you believe that."

A slight smile crept onto Loki's face, as well as a faint blush, "I- I don't know," he looked into his friend's eyes, "Do you really?"

"I do. I still want to spend time with my other friends sometimes…" he admitted quietly before shifting his hand so it was on Loki's cheek and making sure that his friend was looking him in the eyes, "But I _am_ happy that most of my time is spent with you. And it isn't because it has to be, I _want_ it to be that way."

The pale boy closed his eyes and smiled, tilting his head down at that as the blush grew darker. They stayed like that for a few moments, Fandral's hand still on his cheek. After he was relatively certain Loki didn't have anything to say to that, the blond boy quietly said, "Then it was all right that I kissed you, right? You weren't upset?"

The black-haired head jolted up at this question and he frowned as he thought about it, "No, I wasn't upset. I was just caught off guard," he glanced away, "But… I don't think I felt whatever people are supposed to feel when they kiss."

"What do you mean?"

"Like I said… I've never wanted to kiss you or… anything else," he said nervously, "I didn't mind it, but I don't desire it."

Fandral sighed, the hand slipping from the boy's cheek for a moment. When he saw his friend flinch slightly at that he quickly placed it on his shoulder with a sad smile. "I guess you don't really have a crush on me, then."

"I feel like I do, though," Loki replied quietly, placing his hand over Fandral's. "If kissing makes you happy, then I would like it for that, and because you generally have to be close to kiss. I just don't want to kiss you for the sake of it…" he glanced up uncertainly, "Does that make sense?"

"It makes sense... I understand what you're saying, that is. I just haven't heard of something like that," he replied quietly, not sure how to feel. Did that happen? Could that even work? Was it really a kiss if one of the people didn't truly want it and just did it to make the other happy? And when it came to other things, what would happen then?

This string of thoughts was broken when he felt a pair of lips gently touching his cheek. Fandral looked at Loki in surprise as his friend leaned back and looked at him nervously. He touched a hand to his cheek and couldn't help but smile and blush. He looked at the other boy in confusion, "Why did you do that?"

"To see your reaction," he replied with a smile before kissing the other cheek. " _That's_ what I want, Fandral, to see you smile like that and know it's because of me."

"When you put it that way…" he said quietly, grinning like a fool despite himself. He managed to hide it for long enough to say, "Are you certain you're okay with it?"

A verbal answer often suffices, but sometimes it just doesn't get the point across. This was one of these times. Somewhat nervously, Loki pressed his lip to Fandral's, smiling at the feel of his friend's facial hair. Fandral decided to accept this answer and closed his eyes happily for a moment before breaking away.

"I think… there will be a lot we'll have to work out," he said gently, moving his hand slightly so his thumb could caress Loki's chin.

"I know…" he looked down at that, "Are you sure you want to?"

Fandral gently tugged his friend over and pulled him into a somewhat awkward hug, it is difficult to hug someone properly when you're sitting next to each other. Loki returned it as hesitantly as always, before burying his head in the crook of Fandral's neck with a smile. The blond chuckled, "There is nothing I would like more."

After a moment of that, he decided to add, "We still need to do your training, you know."

Loki groaned into his shoulder before pulling away and nodding reluctantly, "We should probably get to that."

"Do you still hate it that much?" Fandral asked with a slight sigh. He wasn't foolish enough to expect that to change, but it would be nice if it had.

It didn't really need to, though, while Loki still made a fuss every now and then it was mostly out of habit and while he was doing what he needed to do. Fandral was actually very surprised with how compliant his friend had been, even before he'd been able to stop taking Tyr's class. The only change that had brought was that Loki was more willing to open up to Fandral, it didn't really effect his willingness to let Fandral teach him how to fight.

Loki had not answered, which was answer enough, and after a few moments the blond looked away with a frown, "Do you have any idea what your father expects you to learn in a month? You're making great progress, but there's only so much _anyone_ can learn in that time…"

The pale boy laughed hollowly, shaking his head, "I have given up trying to figure out, much less meet, my father's expectations. He seems to always set them higher than I can manage."

"I hope that he'll let Tyr be the judge, then," he said quietly, "If he saw what you've learned already he'd probably be convinced."

"I hope that's the case as well," Loki agreed. He looked away sadly for a moment. While he didn't want to let his father down, he was more or less used to it. The thought of letting Fandral down, after he'd gone to so much trouble to arrange this, was something he did not look forward to doing.

He stood up with a sigh, "We should go, then."

Fandral simply nodded, smiling somewhat sadly at him as he stood up as well. He took hold of Loki's hand and squeezed it gently, "We can do it, I'm certain of it."

The trickster squeezed back before letting go, "I hope you're right."

* * *

That day's training session was not quite as awkward as it could have been, which isn't to say that it wasn't at all. Considering what preceded it, how could it not have been? However, their mutual desire to keep Loki from having to be put back in Tyr's class was enough to keep them more or less focused.

More than they could have been, but less than they needed to be.

As was now their habit, they both spent some time afterwards relaxing on Loki's bed. As was likely to become a habit, after about 15 minutes of them just lying there, recovering from the workout, the trickster glanced over at his friend, or whatever they were now, and cautiously snuggled up to him. With a smile, Fandral gently looped his arm around him and placed a hand on his head, nestling his fingers in the black hair.

"Loki?" the blond said gently after a few moments of this.

"Mm?"

Fandral shifted slightly so that they could see each other's faces better before he went on, "Promise me that you'll tell me if you don't want to do something- even if you don't want to kiss me at some point."

The trickster chuckled, "If you tried to do something I didn't want to you- I _do_ have an assortment of spells that would stop you."

"I'm being serious," he said quietly.

"I know," he looked down slightly, this wasn't something he wanted to think about now. "I'll do my best…"

"I can't ask for more than that," Fandral said with a sigh, gently kissing the top of Loki's head, "I won't be upset with you if you do."

"Just disappointed."

The blond wanted to argue but he knew that Loki was right. It didn't change his stance, though. "I'd rather be disappointed."

Loki couldn't help but smile, even if he didn't fully believe it. It was easy to say now. Later, when it was actually happening, that might change. He sighed gently, "Are you certain this is what you want? You could find someone easier to be with."

Fandral rolled his eyes at the question. He couldn't help but wonder how many times they'd end up having this conversation. "If I wanted that- I would have done it by now," he said quietly, running his hand through Loki's hair, "I don't expect you to believe me right now but, yes, I _am_ certain."

It didn't convince him fully, but it was nice to hear nonetheless. There were a few moments of comfortable silence before Loki sat up and looked away, "Ah… I don't really want to tell anyone about this. Not right now at least."

"I didn't think you would," he replied with a smirk. It really went without question, it would've been a shock if Loki _had_ wanted to tell people. Although, in truth, Fandral was grateful for this. He wasn't sure how his friends, particularly Thor, would react. He wasn't sure if he wanted to find out.

Even though his friends' opinions mattered a great deal to him, he had not been so foolish as to agree to this if he would end it the second they disagreed with it. That wasn't a concern. Right now he just wanted to be happy about this. The only disapproval or concerns that mattered were his own and Loki's.

And, though he did not want to admit this to himself, he couldn't help but worry that Loki might change his mind about this. If that happened, he would rather have the chance to get over it privately. Telling people would make that a bit impossible.

"You don't mind?"

Fandral sat up at that and wrapped his arms around the boy. "Not a bit," he replied, punctuating the statement by placing a gentle kiss on his cheek.


	13. Chapter 13

Their morning classes went relatively normal. Thor had sat down next to Loki before Fandral had even thought about whether he wanted to or not. Later on he realized that was probably for the best, removing a great deal of chance for distraction.

After the classes, as the four began leaving the classroom, Sif walked up next to him with a smile, "So- when are you going to tell us?"

"Tell you what?" The blond boy asked, raising his eyebrows.

She shook her head, "Come on- you were practically beaming throughout the entire class. I can't imagine you found _Bragi_ that interesting."

"She's right," Volstagg agreed with a chuckle, "and don't think we hadn't noticed that you haven't been yourself for a few days."

Fandral looked around, "Where's Thor?"

"Probably checking on his brother… again," the red head replied with a shrug, looking back to check. Thor was indeed speaking with his brother, who had the same frustrated look he always had when Thor fussed over him in public. The three turned to wait for their friend, who quickly joined them after ruffling Loki's hair. The pale boy was now indignantly smoothing it back down.

"Has he told you anything?" Thor asked when he approached his friends, causing Fandral to groan and the other two to roll their eyes.

They started down the hallway, the three coming up with increasingly more ridiculous theories for what could have happened. A bit into lunch they finally got bored with this, which wasn't getting Fandral to admit what was going on.

Volstagg finally said, "Don't tell me it's just that this was all over some Midgard woman who you finally won the affections of."

The boy shook his head with a chuckle, "Something like that…" It wasn't technically a lie.

Sif raised an eyebrow, "Must be something special, usually you won't stop talking about it when a mortal girl catches your fancy."

"I suppose it is a somewhat different situation…" he admitted, flushing slightly. He glanced down the table and frowned, turning to Thor, "Why isn't your brother here?"

"Hm?" Thor responded, "Oh, yes, he didn't want to."

"You let him?"

"I don't control him," he responded with a laugh, until he noticed his friends' looks, "Er, well, his arm _has_ healed and I know he hates being around so many people…"

"That makes sense," Fandral said with a nod, leaning back in his chair, "What pairs do you think Tyr'll have us in today?"

"I'll demand he let me fight you if you don't stop trying to avoid the subject," Sif told him with a teasing laugh.

He gave her a look of mock horror, "You dare suggest I would do such a thing?"

She stuck her tongue out at him, "Only when you do such things."

"I can't argue with that," he replied with a slight laugh before sighing slightly. "Why do you all want to know so badly? How interesting can it be?"

Volstagg chuckled, "He has a point. With as often as this one chases after mortals, we'll be long weary of the tales in no time."

"It isn't for the stories, though," Thor pointed out, "the _real_ fun is getting them out of him."

"What you're saying," Fandral interrupted, "Is that if I'd just _tell_ you, you'd stop harassing me and eventually grow bored of my fascinating tales of romantic conquest?"

The three put in various forms of agreement that this was, indeed, the case. The blond shook his head in disappointment before crossing his arms, "Well, that hardly gives me any incentive to tell you, does it?"

Fandral managed to survive a lunch of his friends playfully trying to get information out of him, as well as a class where he actually _had_ been paired up with Sif. Thankfully his friend had been joking earlier and went no harder on him than she usually did. He came _very_ close to winning, even.

After the class, when the four usually headed to the public bath, Thor pulled him aside.

"What is it?" Fandral asked, trying not to look as nervous as he felt.

Thor bit his lip for a moment, "Earlier you asked why Loki wasn't at lunch- I wasn't fully truthful, although I'm not even sure if I should be telling you this. You know how he is…"

Fandral nodded silently, any anxiety now replaced with concern.

With a sigh Thor continued somewhat reluctantly, "He told me that he wasn't feeling well… That isn't something he says often, usually he waits until he's passed out before admitting he's sick. I asked him to go to the healing center, but I doubt he would. I'm worried about him…"

"I can understand why…"

He shook his head and straightened up slightly, "The only reason I'm telling you this is because, obviously, it will effect your training session today. I don't know if he'd tell you even if he's still feeling ill- so please…"

"I'll be careful, I promise," Fandral said softly. The two continued rather slowly, catching up with their friends. The conversation now turned to why the two looked so concerned, but this one was dropped rather quickly and replaced with conversations meant to distract them and help their mood.

This sentiment was appreciated but, for Fandral at least, wasted. He bathed as quickly as he could before leaving.

Usually, there was at least an hour between the ending of Tyr's class and when Fandral would show up to start training Loki. This was primarily so that he could rest enough to be ready for it. After hearing that the boy might be sick, he instead headed straight for his friend's quarters, spending the entire time wishing that he'd have known. He would have happily skipped lunch to try to help any way he could.

Of course, having no medical training or experience he doubted that he could do much, but he still would have tried.

He arrived at Loki's door out of breath, and only then realized that what had started as a fast walk had quickly turned into a run. He knocked on the door without bothering to take a moment to catch his breath, instead doing so while he waited for the door to open.

It did not take long and for a split second he wondered what a mess he must look like, flushed and sweating slightly. This faded when Loki's face crept out with a confused and suspicious expression that was immediately replaced by shock and anxiety with a small, shy smile.

"Fandral…" he said quietly, opening the door more, "I didn't think you'd be here so soon."

"Thor told me you weren't feeling well," he explained, running a hand through his still-wet hair and hoping it looked decent.

Loki's face colored slightly at that. "It really isn't anything serious…" he mumbled quietly, shuffling aside so the other boy could come in.

"Are you certain? What is it?" Fandral asked as he walked in, moving so he could get a closer look at the boy. For a moment he cursed how pale he usually was, it was difficult to tell if he'd gotten paler or if that was his normal complexion.

"It was, ehm…" he scratched his cheek awkwardly, "Nerves, mostly…"

"Nerves? Over what?"

"What happened yesterday," he said very quietly, looking away.

"What… what do you mean?" his voice was also very quiet, his eyes wide as they searched what they could see of Loki's face.

"Erm, it's silly."

"Tell me," he said desperately, before realizing how demanding that sounded and adding, "Please?"

"I just… I don't like being this vulnerable," he glanced up at Fandral from under his eyelashes, "And… I'm afraid you'll decide you don't want me."

He had been about to ask what Loki meant by being vulnerable when he heard the second sentence. Instead, he shook his head and wrapped his arm around the thin boy with a relieved sigh, "You _are_ being silly. Of course I do."

Loki nodded against Fandral's shoulder, wrapping his arms around him in return and grabbing the fabric of his shirt.

"Loki," he said gently, "Why do you feel vulnerable?"

He burrowed his face in the blond boy's neck, biting his lip for a moment before saying, "Because…" he tightened his grip, "even though I know you don't want to hurt me" _at least I hope you don't_ "you could, very easily. It frightens me."

"I don't know what to say," he said with a sigh, tightening his hold slightly.

"I told you," he said with a strained laugh, "it's silly."

Fandral shook his head before leaning it against the boy's, "No, it isn't. I just don't know how to help you feel safe from something like that. Has it upset you enough to make you sick?"

"Not _sick_ ," he corrected, "Just… very nauseous."

The blond broke the hug, stepping back to get a better look at Loki, "That's close enough. Are you up to the training today? I don't mean right now, of course, but if you're feeling unwell…"

"I should be able to do enough," he replied quietly, looking down and feeling self-conscious, "But, ah… would you mind staying with me until then?"

"Of course I will," he replied with a smile, placing a hand on the pale cheek. Loki leaned into it slightly before suddenly throwing his arms around the other boy's neck and again burying his face in Fandral's shoulder. Not sure what else he do, he simply wrapped his arms around the boy with a soft smile, with one hand gently running through the black hair.


	14. Chapter 14

It would obviously take more than one day for Loki to feel more comfortable. A few nights later, not long after he had finally put down the book and decided to sleep, he reflected on the situation. With a bit of confusion, he was starting to realize that as painful as the thought of being vulnerable was, this growing feeling that he genuinely could trust Fandral was all the sweeter for it.

When he was about to drift off to sleep, a soft smile on his face, he heard a knock on the door. Not the outer door to his chambers, the one specifically to his bedroom. The boy was out of bed in a flash, knowing it was his brother.

This had once been a common habit, one or the other "sneaking" off to the other's room at night. Thor would go to Loki, instead of their parents, whenever he had a nightmare or was worried about something. Loki would go to Thor whenever he had let Odin down particularly spectacularly. The other would comfort his brother carefully and they'd tease each other and talk about nothing until they were both asleep.

That was years ago, when they were still children. Before puberty made them both too proud, or self-conscious, to do something so childish. Of course, he didn't expect this to be the case now, and his mind reeled to try and think what would be so important his brother couldn't wait until morning. He stopped as his hand touched the handle to open the door. Fandral wouldn't have told him…

"No, not this late," he whispered to himself before opening the door and looking at his brother in concern, as his mind pointed out that Fandral may have told him some hours ago and his brother had only now processed it enough to confront him. He was grateful that he hadn't bothered to turn the lights on.

"What is it?" he asked quietly, glad to see that it was indeed his brother standing there as he turned the lights in his bedroom on and squinted slightly as his eyes adjusted to the light.

Thor smiled nervously at him, "I apologize if I woke you."

Loki shook his head, "I only just placed down the book I was reading." His brother chuckled at that, and Loki found himself smiling at him. "Why are you here?"

"You will probably think it foolish.. but I couldn't sleep and remembered when we were children, how you could always help me with my problems," his smile is soft and, Loki is surprised to notice, nervous. That was not something he usually saw on his ever-confident brother.

"What do you need help with?" he asked quietly, moving to let his brother in. Even after all these years, they both ended up moving automatically the way that they had before, Loki sitting on his bed and placing his knees to his chest while his brother sat next to him, legs crossed and looking around the room.

"Why haven't we done this in so long?" Thor asked instead of answering the question.

"We grew up."

"That doesn't stop us being brothers." Neither of them had anything to say after that. A few moments of silence later Thor finally continued, "I've been thinking…" Loki felt an urge to make a sarcastic comment, immediately followed by guilt. "About why I've never thought about Sif as anything other than a friend." He glanced over at his brother, who was biting back a large number of comments about the girl. "I think it's because of you. Because of the way you two have never gotten along, how vicious your feud has become."

"Really?" he asked quietly.

Thor nodded, "I can't imagine being with someone you hate so much, even though she is still one of my best friends."

"You shouldn't…" he found himself at a loss for words, it was an odd feeling.

"I was thinking about that as well," his voice was a bit guilty and he smiled nervously at his brother, "Trying to think of how I would feel were you two not feuding."

Loki looked down, "You shouldn't let our mutual hatred get in the way of what you want."

"What if what I want is for you to get along with all of my friends?" he asked with a laugh.

"Well, _that_ you can let it get in the way of."

Thor nudged his brother's shoulder playfully, grinning at him. They both smiled at each other for a moment, feeling again like children in the best possible way.

"You never did tell me who you were interested in," he said quietly, knowing that this was a dangerous way to break that moment, but also that this was the most likely time he'd get an answer.

"No… and I still won't," he replied gently.

"Will you at least tell me if it's someone I know?"

"No."

"It isn't?"

"I won't tell you whether or not it is."

"Hm," he responds, not in the least bit surprised. He shifts so that his elbows are perched on his knees, his chin resting on his hands, "I have a hard time imagining you involved with anyone, in that sense."

"What would you do?" he asked, hoping that his tone came across as vague curiosity.

"I suppose it depends on many things, like who the other person was," Thor replied with a shrug, "I have not thought much on it… If they treat you well, make you happy, then I will be happy for you." Loki smiles a bit too brightly, causing Thor to raise an eyebrow, "Of course- if they ever hurt you, I _would_ have to smash at least some of their bones."

"Of course," Loki replied with a soft laugh, "if I had not beaten you to it."

"You think you can break bones? That I have to see… Fandral's training must have progressed marvelously," Thor teased.

His brother rolled his eyes, "Yes- because there are no spells to shatter bones."

"I keep meaning to ask the library to limit what they allow you access to…" he said quietly. It was mostly a joke, but occasionally he did worry.

Loki frowned, "Why is it alright for you to know how to cut someone with a blade you're wielding, but wrong for me to know how to do the same with magic?"

"I never thought of it that way," he said quietly, looking down, "Fighting with weapons or fists is something I know, something I understand. Sorcery… spells… I don't." His brother looks at him questioningly, and he looks away, "I suppose that I am afraid of it. That is why what I can do with my fists feels noble while doing the same with magic feels…"

"Evil?"

"No!" Thor insisted, "It just feels strange, frightening." He shifted so that he was lying on the bed, staring at the ceiling for a moment before yawning. "It shouldn't, though."

"I suppose that makes sense," Loki said quietly, turning the lights off with a spell and settling himself next to his brother, who murmured something that sounded like gratitude, already drifting off.

* * *

The next morning, Loki awoke snuggled against his brother, who had an arm wrapped around his shoulders. In the bleary state between sleeping and waking, he didn't remember what had happened last night and his mind tried to work out what was going on.

"Fandral..?" he mumbled uncertainly, until he glanced up to see his brother's face. At this he jerked up, his face bright red. He risked a look at his brother, who was still asleep, and he thanked anyone who would listen that Thor was such a deep sleeper. It allowed him to collect himself and also meant that he wouldn't have to explain why he'd said that.

He checked the time and found that he needed to wake his brother if he… _they_ were going to get to class on time. Not even early as Loki preferred, just on time. Which meant that he was quickly shoving his brother's shoulders roughly, practically shouting at him to wake up. He cursed the same deep sleeping he had been grateful for moments ago.

"Let me sleep," Thor groaned, throwing a pillow at his brother. It hit him square in the face, and Loki took a moment to recover that indignity.

"Brother- we have class. You need to _wake up_ if you do not want to be late."

Thor groaned and dragged himself out of bed, looking around blearily, "Oh yeah… I'm in your room."

"You are. Now go to yours so you can get dressed!" he insisted, able to usher his brother out of his bedroom because he was still not quite awake. After this, Loki concerned himself with getting ready for class as quickly as he could. When he walked out of his room he was glad to see that his brother was also ready, and the two ended up walking to class together for the first time since, well, their very first week of classes.

"Have you any thoughts about Sif now that you've had a chance to sleep on it?" Loki asked after a few moments, noticing how awkward they both were and wanting to fix it.

Thor chuckled softly and shook his head, "No… it is difficult."

"You can be friends wit her, this isn't terribly different."

"When we became friends, you two didn't hate each other yet," he pointed out with a sad smile, "also- it _is_ different."

"Yes. It is, isn't it," he agreed softly. His brother raised an eyebrow but did not press.

When they got to the classroom, the other three students were there and immediately turned their attention to them. Loki stiffened visibly at this, although it was comforting to notice that, while Sif and Volstagg were mostly looking at his brother, Fandral's eyes went to Loki. The trickster met the gaze and almost smiled.

"Well, this is an odd sight," Volstagg said as Thor and Loki took the two remaining seats next to each other.

"It is… actually, it's not like you to sleep in," Thor said, looking at his brother with concern.

The pale boy waved a hand, "I'm fine." He was _not_ about to admit that he spent some time lying awake and thinking about how he felt guilty about hiding this from his brother. Or that he then spent a bit more time wrestling a sleeping Thor for the blankets.

"You're certain?" Fandral asked with an eyebrow raised, and Loki nodded, propping his head on his hand so he was looking away from them to hide the color this brought to his cheeks.

"How did you know he'd overslept?" Volstagg asked curiously.

Thor chuckled slightly, "Well, I don't know if he overslept or if it just took that long to wake me up… But I assume he slept in from the way he rushed me out of his room to get ready."

Loki glanced over uncertainly, not sure how people would respond to that. No one seemed overly bothered, but Sif smirked and looked directly at him, "You two in the habit of sleeping together." He met her smirk coldly. Volstagg chuckled at this and someone kicked him under the table to get him to stop, he looked at Fandral in confusion, who just shrugged.

"Sif…" Thor said with a heavy sigh. He shook his head heavily, "I wish that you two could just get along," he gave his brother a sharp look, "although I know neither of you are innocent in this."

"I wouldn't wait too long for that," Loki said stiffly.

Sif frowned and looked away, "I'm afraid we're _well_ beyond that."

Thor sighed, but before he could once again ask for them to _try_ , Bragi walked in.


	15. Chapter 15

After Bragi dismissed the class and left the room, Sif and Volstagg were the only ones who made any motions to move. Loki gave a disturbed look to his brother and Fandral.

"I guess we should go…" Volstagg said to Sif, though loudly enough that either of their friends could interrupt if that weren't the case. All they got were sheepish, apologetic smiles so they did leave.

" _What?_ " Loki asked a bit tersely.

Thor glanced at Fandral, who motioned for him to go first. He sighed heavily and looked at his brother, " _Please_ try… not to so openly hate her."

The pale boy scowled and avoided looking at his brother, "I promise nothing." His face softened, though he still didn't turn his gaze, "If you want to be with her, don't let our fighting stop you."

"Could you be with someone I didn't approve of?" Thor asked sadly.

Loki looked at his brother, carefully avoiding to glance at Fandral as he did, "I'm not certain." Behind Thor he could see Fandral shift at that, but he resisted the urge to see the other boy's expression.

"Fair enough," Thor said quietly, looking down with a sigh, "I…" he shook his head and smiled up at his brother, "I'll leave you and Fandral to talk about whatever it is you need to talk about."

He stood up and left at that, Loki looking after him sadly. He didn't turn to look at Fandral even after Thor had left the room.

"Things will be all right," Fandral said gently, placing a hand on the boy's shoulder. Loki smiled at him. He wasn't convinced, but it was a nice thought.

"I'm really not sure what I'll do if Thor…" he placed a hand over Fandral's and looked away.

"You're smart, you'll think of something," the blond replied.

The black-haired boy gave him an annoyed look before smiling slightly back. Fandral grinned brightly.

"I'm… I don't like hiding this from Thor," Loki said quietly, looking at him nervously.

"That's fine," he said with a smile, "Thor is your brother- it's your decision. Do you want me to tell him?"

Loki gave him a grateful smile before frowning and looking away as he thought about that question. While it seemed like it would be better for him to tell his brother, he didn't have the words. This was out of his area of expertise, he wasn't even sure what to call his relationship with Fandral. And, while it was a bit painful to admit it, Fandral was closer to his brother these days…

"It would probably be best if you told him," he said quietly, not able to hide the sadness in his voice.

"Are you certain? If you would prefer to do it…"

"I… I don't know _how_ to tell him," he said awkwardly.

"Oh…" he said quietly, gently leaning over and placing a kiss on Loki's cheek, "That's all right. We could both do it."

Loki glanced up at him, "Can we?"

"I think so…" he nodded, smiling reassuringly.

"We should probably leave," he said with a small smile, realizing that they had yet to leave the classroom. Fandral nodded his agreement and started standing up. Before Loki did, something occurred to him, "What did you want to speak with me about?"

"Oh, nothing, really…" he said quietly, smiling shyly. It was a look not often seen on his face. "I was just going to ask if you'd eat lunch with me."

Loki let out a soft laugh at that, standing up and taking Fandral's hand in his, "I'd love to."

* * *

Thor had been able to catch up with his friends before they reached the dining hall. Volstagg greeted him warmly, but Sif was somewhat cold about it. After they'd sat down and spent some time joking and getting on like they usually did, Thor bit his lip and turned to Sif, "I don't suppose asking you and Loki to call truce would get anywhere…"

The warrior-to-be's eyes widened and she glared at him for a moment before calming down and simply clasping her hands in annoyance, "I… _suppose_ if you can get _him_ to agree to."

"I'll speak with him," Thor said, smiling warmly at her when what he really wanted to do was throw something. Dealing with the two of them was infuriating. Tyr's class could not start soon enough…

He was somewhat distracted from this train of thoughts when Loki and Fandral walked in. It was only at this point that he realized they hadn't yet, he'd assumed they would have by now, considering how long Thor and the others had been there.

Fandral smiled and waved at his friends, Thor and Volstagg returned it but Sif just shot a scathing look at Loki, who shot back an icy smile. Thor certainly had his work cut out for him if wanted to get them to start being civil towards each other.

"I don't know how Fandral puts up with him," Sif muttered, shaking her head. " _How_ did he end up the one to teach that brat?" she looked over at Thor, "Did he anger the wrong person?"

He shook his head with a wry smile, "I doubt you'll believe me- but he volunteered to do so."

" _Why?_ "

"I'm afraid you'd have to ask him," he said, glancing over to where the two were. Fandral had a very soft, even caring expression and Loki had his head down so Thor couldn't tell what the look on his face was.

Sif glanced over as well and rolled her eyes, "I'll have to some time…"

* * *

Apparently the 'some time' Sif intended to ask Fandral about this was after Tyr's class. Thor and Volstagg had been paired up and, while they were mostly evenly matched, Thor's need to get out aggression resulted in some pretty bad wounds. He took his friend to the healing room and stayed with him, leaving Fandral and Sif alone after the class.

"Fandral, I wish to speak with you on something," she said quietly after Tyr told them to stop fighting.

"You know you can talk to me about anything," the blond said with a smile after taking a moment to catch his breath as they did cool-down exercises.

She nodded, frowning slightly, "Why is it that you offered to teach Loki how to fight?"

"Oh, that?" he said simply, trying to sound as nonchalant as possible, "He'd helped me with something and I felt I owed him it as a favor in return."

"What did he help you with that warranted such a favor?"

He should have seen that question coming. The blond licked his lips and looked at his friend nervously, "Well, he helped me with my other classes."

"What? Since when?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Since I started actually being able to do them," he replied sheepishly.

Sif scowled at that, but shook her head her face softening, "Why didn't you tell us?"

"Because I liked the feeling I got when you thought I could do it," he admitted, "And also because I didn't know if you- any of you- would bother Loki about it and I needed his help- I couldn't risk it."

"I wish I could say we wouldn't have…" she said with a sigh. She frowned slightly, "Although he can be a bit too touchy."

Fandral laughed, "He can be, I know…"

"He really helped you, then?" she asked quietly.

"He did."

"And he's actually letting you teach him how to fight?"

"I don't know if we should be talking about that," he said gently, looking away. Sif raised her eyebrows.

"Even if he's not," she said with a smirk, playfully punching his arm, "He owes you for getting him out of having to fight _me_."

He laughed, rubbing his arm although it hadn't hurt, "Too bad he can't return the favor and get the rest of us out of it!" They smiled at each other for a moment. Fandral sighed, "Thor asked him to stop the _actual_ fighting you two do."

"He asked me to as well," she said quietly, although a small smile crept onto her face when she heard that. It faded quickly, "What did he say?"

"Just that he didn't promise anything- what did you say?"

"That I only would if he did."

Fandral let out a soft laugh, "Ah… As stubborn as you two are, I do not envy Thor trying to act as a mediator."

"No," she agreed, looking down, "Although he may have been unwilling if he thought that he would have to play nice while I kept it up."

"That's true," he agreed quietly, looking over at her with a gentle smile, "Would you mind if I told him that you're willing to stop?"

She shook her head, "No, go ahead." The girl glanced up sharply, "But know that I do this for Thor- and _not_ for his brother."

"I can not imagine anyone thinking otherwise," he assured her, shaking his head.

"They should have been done by now," Sif said quietly, looking to the door of the healing room. They had been intending to head to the public baths, but their conversation took a bit longer than Sif had meant it to.

"I didn't think he was that hurt…" Fandral agreed, a look of concern coming onto his face. "Do you think we should wait for them?"

"Yes…" she agreed quietly, still watching the door as she bit her lip.

* * *

Everything was fine, as it turned out. Thor and Volstagg had simply gotten rowdy and Eir refused to let them leave until they calmed down and let her do her job. It was a tail they recounted with much amusement after they left and joined their friends. The rest of the day went as it usually did. Fandral spent a few hours training Loki before dinner, after dinner they spent a few hours studying. And, a more recent development, Fandral and Loki ended up snuggled up on a couch in the library.

Usually Loki would read some book or another to Fandral, they alternated between whose preferences for books they chose, although each time Loki got a bit better at selecting one they both enjoyed. Today, however, Fandral said, "Actually- there are some things I want to talk about."

"Oh?" Loki asked quietly, sitting up and placing the book back down. He let his eyes focus on the bookmark. Fandral wrapped an arm around his shoulders and placed a kiss on his cheek, hoping that would reassure him. The black haired boy smiled slightly in response.

"Sif" he couldn't help but smile as the boy tensed at her name, "has agreed to stop so long as you do as well."

Loki raised an eyebrow, leaning against Fandral, "Did she?"

"Yes," he said gently.

"I suppose I have no reason not to do the same," the boy closed his eyes and sighed. He didn't believe for a moment it would last, but he would. "Do you also want to talk about Thor?"

The blond nodded, "I thought you would, at least. We don't have classes tomorrow, seems like as good a time to tell him."

"It does…" he agreed off-handedly, his stomach squirming slightly. The trickster rolled his eyes, "Although if he ends up waking me up to talk again tonight I may just tell him then…"

"Does he do that often?" Fandral asked, chuckling softly at the thought of Thor waking Loki, eager to talk, while the other boy glowered at being awoken.

"It used to," he said quietly, "but last night was the first time in years."

"Is anything wrong?"

"No… he wanted to talk to me about Sif," he frowned, shaking his head, "I think I'm going to have to get used to the idea of them together."

"You think that just because he asked you to be nice to her? He's probably just worried I mean- she broke your arm pretty badly," he raised an eyebrow at that leap of conclusions.

Loki pursed his lips into a thin line for a moment before shaking his head again, "No- he wanted to talk to me because he thought that the only reason he wasn't thinking of her in that way was because I hated her."

"Oh."

"Precisely."

"I suppose you do have to get used to that," the blond agreed gently, giving him a gentle squeeze with his arm.


	16. Chapter 16

"What do you think you'll do?" Fandral asked, settling himself into the corner of the couch between the back and the armrest before gently pulling at Loki, who shifted himself so that he had his arms around the other boy's shoulder, their heads resting against each other.

Again he pursed his lips, "I don't know. I haven't had to deal with her when they were friends, but that may change if their relationship becomes something else…"

"I haven't asked you to be around anyone you don't want to," Fandral pointed out, placing a kiss on his forehead, "I'm sure Thor won't either."

"I hope you're right," he said quietly, smiling at the light tickle of Fandral's facial hair and the warm softness of his lips. "Sometimes I worry that my brother is… intentionally oblivious. I can see him getting it into his head that we just need to _get to know each other_ and Sif and I will be the best of friends."

He couldn't argue with this, so instead wormed the arm behind Loki around his side and gave a gentle squeeze. "You're right. He may…" The black haired boy buried his head in Fandral's neck, not sure whether to be angry or sad. "I'll do everything in my power to be there with you every time, " he said firmly, the sudden seriousness causing Loki to shift himself back slightly to look at his face.

Fandral wasn't looking at him, his brow was furrowed in thought and his jaw set. The trickster smiled softly, placing a hand on his cheek and a kiss on the other. The blond's face softened at that and he sighed, "I don't know if I'll ever get used to it."

"To what?"

"To being able to do this," he said, turning to face Loki and placing a kiss on his lips. The pale boy let out a soft laugh against them before moving his hand from Fandral's cheek to the back of his head, drawing him closer. At that, the blond parted his lips slightly and teased his tongue against the other's lips until they parted, allowing him to appreciatively explore every inch of Loki's mouth while the other boy's tongue occasionally ran against it, earning grateful noises.

After a moment or so of this, Loki pulled back more than he needed to just to catch his breath, and Fandral pouted at him.

"We probably shouldn't be doing this here," the trickster pointed out with a soft chuckle, "I've been banned for the library a few times, but I'd rather not get in trouble for _this_."

"I hate it when you're right," the blond muttered, letting go of the boy who was quickly collecting their books and other things, handing some things to Fandral.

"No you don't," Loki said smugly, placing a peck on his cheek, "I never said we had to _stop completely_ just… _not here_ , somewhere more private."

"I can still hate it when you're right," he said with another pout that was slightly tempered by the smile twitching at the corner of his lips.

Loki stood up with a smile, "You can do what you wish…"

Fandral stood up as well, looking over the notes they'd made that evening, "My room is closer than yours…"

"Really?" he asked quietly, biting his lip as he watched the other boy intently.

He nodded, "If you don't mind…"

"I don't," he said too quickly.

"It's… I'm not the tidiest," he said awkwardly, feeling his cheeks flush.

"That's fine," he said with a shy smile, "I wouldn't expect you to be."

"Are- er- are you certain? I know you can be—"

Loki cut this off by catching his lips in a kiss. He broke it quickly and looked into Fandral's eyes, "Even if it is worse than Thor's room can get, I won't care."

The blond gave him a content smile and a gentle laugh. That was a good point. Thor kept his armor in working order and did have a certain pride in his appearance, but certainly wasn't as fastidious as his brother was. Fandral had seen the wreck Thor would let his room get to be. His wasn't nearly as bad, strewn a bit with clothes and now books. At least the furniture was upright and in one piece. That was more than could be said for Thor's when he'd had a particularly bad day.

"I shall hold you to that," he said softly, motioning for Loki to follow him as he led the way out of the library.

* * *

Asgard was very much communal, most living quarters were connected to the main buildings and reached by unblocked corridors. Very few people had houses that were completely separate, some were content to just have a small room with a bed and space to put their belongings.

Fandral was old enough to have his own room separate from his family (who, Loki realized with a pang of guilt, the trickster had never even thought of much less asked about). It was large enough but rather plain. It had shelves that were covered with various mementos from the adventures he'd had and things from his childhood, as well as the books Loki had given him, a trunk filled with things that wouldn't fit on the shelf, as well as several drawers and a closet for things like clothing and armor.

The prince of Asgard couldn't help but feel a bit odd about the differences in their status that this brought into sharp focus. He had always been accustomed to what he and Thor had, even felt jealous of what Thor had that he didn't, now he wondered if they hadn't been spoiled a bit.

"Are you alright?" Fandral asked, noticing the look on the boy's face. While he was pleased that it wasn't disgust, the far-away sadness wasn't much better.

Loki shook himself and smiled at the blond, "I apologize- I was wondering how a person could survive without a private bath."

He chuckled at that, shaking his head. On Asgard, using public baths was more common than having private ones, and Thor had never had a problem with that. The pale boy had always disliked them and, after the onset of puberty, resolutely refused to set foot in one, even fully clothed.

"There are some things you were not meant to understand," he replied playfully, placing a kiss on the boy's cheek.

"I suppose you're right," he said with a smile. A blush crept up on his cheeks and he looked away, "Although…. If you _did_ wish to use mine, you're welcome to."

It took several minutes for Fandral to register what had been said enough to respond to it. He knew from Thor's complaining about his brother that Thor was hardly allowed in the room much less… He smiled warmly at the boy, placing himself directly in front of him and taking both of his hands. This only caused Loki to blush a deeper shade of red and avoid Fandral's eyes more avidly.

"Thank you," the blond said quietly.

The black-haired boy nodded, his lips curving upwards slightly, "Ehm… I believe we were in the middle of something before."

"Before _you_ interrupted it, you mean?" he asked with a playful laugh.

"Yes," he replied, closing the difference between them with a step, "Before I stopped us from getting into trouble."

"Is that how it happened?" Fandral asked, letting go of his hold on Loki's hand and snaking his arms around the boy's shoulders.

"It is," the trickster said with a smirk, placing his arms around Fandral's waist and pulling him closer.

"Then I suppose it was for the best," he said quietly before finally placing his lips against the other boy's.

This time, mostly out of curiosity, Loki's tongue was the one teasing its way into Fandral's mouth before exploring inside. He was pleased to find that he could get the other boy to make the most _wonderful_ sounds when he hit the right areas. His explorations were somewhat interrupted by Fandral moving them both towards his bed, something which the trickster didn't interfere with until they had reached it.

As Fandral moved to push him down on it, he moved to the side so the boy almost fell onto the bed, bracing himself with his arms as he looked up indignantly at Loki. The black haired boy smiled and just pushed on Fandral's shoulder, prompting him to roll over so that he was on his back as Loki leaned over him, reconnecting their lips. Of course, the blond had no interest in taking a completely passive role as he placed a hand on Loki's back to gently push him down further.

"Do you want to move?" Loki asked quietly, breaking the kiss for a few moments. Fandral pushed himself up slightly and thought about it.

"Not much," he replied with a grin, quickly shifting so that he was sitting up on the bed, a startled Loki now straddling his lap. He placed a hand on the boy's cheek and looked at him with sincerity in his eyes, "Is this alright?"

"Yes," he replied, placing a hand over Fandral's with a content smile before moving his hand to under the blond's chin and bringing his face closer. Fandral responded to that by shifting his own hand to the back of Loki's head, tangling his fingers in the hair as he pressed his lips to Loki's again.

The two continued kissing like that for some time. Neither were comfortable enough to venture underneath clothing and hands only strayed so far. After enough of this, when their lips were too sore and Fandral realized that if they kept going they'd end up venturing somewhere he wasn't sure they were ready to go, they ended up lying on the blond's bed, their foreheads touching.

"We should do that again some time," Fandral said gently.

"Hm... I'll _think_ about it," Loki replied. The blond gently bapped his nose with a finger and the black-haired boy smiled, "I would like that."

"You mean that?"

"I said it didn't I?"

"I just worry," Fandral said, smiling softly at him.

"I know you do," Loki said, moving so that he snuggled himself against the other, sighing happily and closing his eyes.

Fandral frowned at him, "You aren't planning on falling asleep, are you?"

"Why shouldn't I?" he asked without opening his eyes.

The blond thought about it for a few moments before smiling and laying an arm over the boy, "I suppose there's no reason not to."

* * *

There really was no rational reason not to. A rather irrational reason not to, however, was growing increasingly more concerned that his brother wasn't in his room at such a late hour.

As he had the night before, Thor went to his brother to speak after spending a few futile hours attempting to sleep. He was surprised not to hear an answer at the door, his brother was a light sleeper and as he ended up banging on the door loudly enough that he half expected someone from half-way across Asgard to come over and tell him to keep it down.

This, obviously, was reason to worry. Thor opened the door cautiously and quickly came to realize that his brother had set it up that it was impossible to illuminate the room without magic. His eyes had adjusted to the dark already so this was more an inconvenience, and he made his way to his brother's bed, wondering if he'd once again fallen ill and failed to tell anyone.

His mind had already come up with a hundred such scenarios and he knew what to do in response to each of them. What it hadn't expected was that his brother wasn't there. The bed was completely untouched. Or, it had been, before Thor tore it apart as if his brother were hiding under a pillow. Obviously he wasn't.

"By the Allfather…" he muttered to himself, sitting down on the now bare bed and rubbing his face with his hands, "Where _is_ he?"

He did not want to raise alarm. Actually, he wanted to very much, but this was not a good plan. Not that he wanted to admit this, he did not know his brother very well these days. It could be common for Loki to spend nights elsewhere… The idea seemed ridiculous, though, and he simply couldn't believe it enough to stop worrying.

At some point he had ended up pacing, occasionally muttering to himself. A knock at the outer door stopped him mid-stride as he tried to decide whether or not to answer it. It wasn't really worth mentioning that he spent any time deciding this, it took no time for the _chance_ that it might be someone who knew his brother's whereabouts to outweigh the awkwardness of explaining what he was doing there.

He threw the door open and was rather surprised to see a guard standing there, doing his best to look formal. It wasn't a very convincing act. "Heimdall sent me," the guard said, a smile twitching at his lips.

"Why?" Thor furrowed his brow as he tried to think about what on Earth would cause the watchman to call for him.

"All-seeing as he is, he is aware of your current… predicament and sent me to assure you that your brother is, indeed, safe."

Thor let out a long breath and smiled warmly at the guard, "Thank you." Of course Heimdall would have noticed not only what he was doing, he did notice when something out of the ordinary happened, but would also be able to locate his brother. "Do you know where he is?"

"With Fandral. I think that's the name," the guard replied, his eyes looking off as he thought about it, "I'm pretty sure… He did say it was odd that you wouldn't expect that."

"Why would it be odd?" Thor asked warily. Without thinking about it, he steeled himself as if expecting a physical attack.

The guard blinked at him, "It's odd because, Heimdall said that they _are_ lovers. It's expected that they'd share a bed sometimes."


	17. Chapter 17

It was not common for Thor to think before he spoke, but he did at this point. After a few moments, during which the guard grew visibly bored, he finally said, "Are you _quite_ certain Heimdall said that?"

"Yes," he replied without hesitation.

"It is very late, is there no possibility that you misspoke- or that Heimdall had?"

The guard smiled at him at this point, chuckling softly, "Ah little prince…" Thor bristled at this- he may not yet be a man but he was far from a child and nothing about him was 'little'. "I forget that you don't know me… I am Nott, God of the Night. As a result, not only am I the main person in charge of guarding Asgard while it's under my domain- but, this is when I am at my sharpest."

Thor nodded. He knew who Nott was, everyone knew his name, but not many had met him. "And Heimdall?"

"You know how powerful he is, little prince" (Thor's lips tightened slightly) "through his sorcery he has not needed to sleep or eat since he took his post. Occasionally, when it is safe, he indulges- but this occurs rarely. The day he makes a mistake from lack of sleep is the day he retires his post."

"You knew that I didn't know," Thor said quietly.

Nott chuckled again, "I'm not certain if Heimdall did or not- I wasn't lying, he did say that. But yes- I did. Not for fact, but I doubted very much that, had you known, you wouldn't have checked his lover's room first." He smiled, if it was meant to be reassuring it was not, "Your reaction, of course, proved it."

"You may leave now," Thor said firmly, his voice carrying all the authority the son of Odin had. Nott's smile faded and he raised his eyebrows, but the smile soon returned and he bowed before taking his leave, leaving the boy to his thoughts.

While Thor was older than Loki, they were not very far apart in age at all. Most everyone around them, although they treated the two differently, treated them as the same age. There was no baby in the family. Despite this, Thor still thought of Loki as his baby brother. Someone who needed protection, someone who looked up to Thor, someone who was decidedly _not_ ready to be sharing a bed with _anyone_ much less someone with Fandral's reputation.

He felt a strong desire to rush to his friend's room, confront him, but he did not care to take the risk of what he might witness were he to do that. Again he was pacing in his brother's too-empty room, this time trying to decide what to do. It didn't take long to come to the conclusion that he'd just have to wait until morning. Sleep took longer to reach.

* * *

The next morning, Loki was woken by being gently shaken. He groaned, swatting away whatever was trying to bring him to consciousness. The pale boy rolled over and buried his face in—

That was not his pillow.

He was not in his bed.

He sat up, the adrenaline rush erasing most of his grogginess. It didn't take long to remember why he was there, and he turned a shy smile to Fandral, who was sitting on the bed with an amused smile. Loki hastily attempted to smooth back his ruffled hair and blushed slightly. The only time he'd ever woken up in someone else's room was with Thor, he wasn't sure what to do in a situation like this.

"Good morning," Fandral said quietly, running a hand over mostly-smoothed black hair.

"Why did you wake me up?" he asked, noticing that the other boy had already changed into fresh clothes.

"I thought you'd want to get changed before breakfast."

The pale boy pursed his lips at that. Was he surrounded by morning people? "I don't eat breakfast."

"You really should…"

"I've gotten the lecture from Thor a dozen times. I don't eat breakfast."

"That's why you really should. Don't you think you'll need strength for today?" Fandral pointed out, glancing away and biting his lip.

"I'd forgotten…" he said quietly, sighing. This wasn't something he was looking forward to, although there were certainly things in his life he looked forward to less. Actually, Loki couldn't think of why he hadn't wanted to tell his brother and now just felt guilt about not doing so sooner.

"Fine, I'll go to _breakfast_ ," he muttered after realizing he'd been lost in thought for a moment, "But you're right- I do have to change first."

* * *

During the walk to Loki's room, the two chatted aimlessly, both feeling somewhat awkward about the night before. When Loki held the door to his room open to let Fandral in, the blond declined and instead decided to wait in the corridor. A few moments after this decision, Thor came out of his room looking very much like someone who had not gotten little sleep and had something heavy on his mind.

"Thor- what is it?" Fandral asked in place of a usual greeting, and was rather surprised when the answer he got came in the form of his friend lunging at him, grabbing his collar and pinning him against a wall.

"What are you doing with my brother?" Thor asked through clenched teeth.

Fandral had actually seen his friend like this before, though never directed at him, and was well aware of what usually happened to people Thor got this angry with. He swallowed nervously, his brain trying to come up with a proper response, "What do you mean?"

"If you're taking advantage of him…"

"I'd _never_ ," Fandral snarled back.

"Why should I belie—"

" _Thor_." The word was actually spoken rather quietly, but it still stung like a whip. Neither of them had noticed the trickster walk back into the hallway, any plans of dressing interrupted by the loud _bang_ he had heard and felt needed investigating. The boy was now standing beside his door, standing at his full height- which was actually over both Thor's and Fandral's, his arms firmly clasped behind his back and lips pursed into a thin line.

Thor looked at his brother uncertainly, but did not release Fandral or even loosen his hold so it'd be more comfortable.

"Put him down," Loki said quietly.

"Loki, he—"

"Did nothing. Put him down."

At this Thor relented, letting go of Fandral and letting him drop. He caught himself easily, but winced as he rubbed his collarbones where Thor had grabbed him.

Loki briefly glanced over Fandral before walking over to his brother, his posture not changing. "What do you know?"

"What is there to know?"

"I…" he faltered at this, he wasn't sure what there was to know. He still didn't know what he was to Fandral, what Fandral was to him. The boy looked down, seeming to shrink slightly into himself, "I'm not certain."

Thor jerked slightly as if to lunge back at Fandral but stopped himself and simply glared at the blond, who frowned. "We're involved," he said simply, meeting Thor's glare.

"For how long?" Thor asked quietly, faltering slightly.

"Less than a week," Loki said, looking away, "I apologize for not telling you sooner- we planned to today." He glanced between the two with a sad smile, "Though not like this."

"Less than a week and he's sharing your bed?" It was directed at Fandral, and again Loki's lips pursed into a thin line.

"In the same way that you share mine," the pale boy said quietly, struggling to keep his voice even. His brother looked at him in surprise to hear this, and warily looked to Fandral who nodded firmly. Thor's shoulders slumped and he felt a knot in his stomach over the situation.

Loki walked over so that he was standing directly in front of his brother and looked him in the eyes, "He has been very careful not to do anything that would make me uncomfortable. If anyone is taking advantage here, it is I."

"You can't think that," Fandral objected, but Loki cut him off with a look. This was a conversation between his brother and him.

Thor shook his head, "I am glad to hear that…" he looked at his friend and smiled apologetically, "Please forgive me for what I did, I acted rashly."

"It is not the first time and won't be the last," he replied with a chuckle.

Thor sighed laughed thickly, shaking his head and turning back to his brother, "Well at least I now understand why you didn't want to tell me who you were interested in."

"Yes…" Loki agreed with a small smile, his cheeks coloring slightly.

"Now though… Will you tell me how long you have been?" Thor asked, looking hopefully at his brother. Off to the side, Fandral leaned slightly towards them, eager to hear the answer.

"Ah… well, I suppose…" he looked down, fidgeting slightly at the attention and the answer. He closed his eyes, "Roughly a week after I met him."

"What?" Fandral couldn't help but ask it, he had been meaning to stay out of this conversation as much as possible, but it came out. "But… You _hated_ me."

Loki looked away, "No… I hated that Thor knew how to get along with you. That you liked him better."

The other two boys glanced at each other. Neither could deny it. Thor had always been charismatic, he made friends as naturally as he could breath. His brother had never had this gift, though he later learned how to talk people into things and talk his way out of trouble. This did not help him to make friends.

"I am sorry for how I treated you," the black haired boy said quietly, looking up at Fandral nervously.

Fandral smiled at him, he would have given him a hug but he did not want to anger Thor, "I know."

Thor watched them carefully during this. Quietly he said to his brother, "Do you mind if I speak with him alone?"

Loki raised an eyebrow, "Fine- but please avoid spilling blood, I rather like that outfit on him." Fandral chuckled at this, but his cheeks tinged slightly. With that, the pale boy returned to his room to finish what he had intended to do in the first place- now pleased to know he had enough time to properly wash first.

After the door closed behind the boy, Fandral turned to his friend warily. "How could you think that of me?"

"With a reputation like yours," Thor pointed out, crossing his arms.

"You know Loki's reputation, yet you didn't assume that he'd concocted some spell or potion to force me to be with him," he shot back.

"Your reputation isn't nearly as bad as my brother's," Thor said quietly, "It's easier to believe."

Fandral set his jaw, "Well, it is not deserved."

"I apologize for assuming it was."

"Thank you," he said quietly, before chuckling softly, "Although it is not unsurprising- I've done nothing to deter the rumors."

"You've enjoyed them to much to do that," he replied, laughing warmly.

"I have…" he said with a fond smile that fell rather quickly, "I hope that it doesn't upset Loki."

"You truly care for him, don't you?" Thor asked quietly, his face serious as he looked over his friend's face.

Fandral smiled at him, "Would I risk Sif's reaction if I didn't truly want to be with him?" His friend simply raised an eyebrow, unimpressed with that. Fandral shook his head, still smiling, "I do. I'm not certain how he feels, I doubt even he knows, but I care for him more than anything else."

"I can find no quarrel with that…" Thor said, sounding somewhat disappointment that he couldn't. He looked at his friend with a very serious expression, "You do know what I must do if you ever hurt him."

"I am very well aware," Fandral said with a nod, "I have no intention to even without the threat to my various body parts."

Thor clapped him on the back, "Good man."


	18. Chapter 18

Loki took far longer to get changed than he needed to. In fact, he spent a very long time in a warm bath with water he'd added relaxing herbs to. It was not the kindest thing he had ever done, leaving Fandral alone with Thor for so long- or possibly just alone at some point. His mind briefly flickered to the thought of what would happen if Fandral came looking for him, but this was not his brother. He was highly unlikely to barge into Loki's bath room the way Thor would, and sometimes did.

Something about how protective Thor was being right now bothered him. The way his brother always fussed over him when he was sick or hurt was a bit of a nuisance, but deep down he loved it. This just bothered him, and he could not quite put his finger on why.

He had seen Thor do _far_ worse to Fandral in their training, once he'd even seen them having a proper fight when they disagreed on what actions to take when Thor had dragged them all on one of his "adventures" on Midgard. He had seen his brother do far worse to people who actually insulted Loki to his face. Yet this bothered him.

Which was why he decided to take the bath. Frankly, he felt that he deserved one and it'd been some time since he'd indulged in such a thing. He needed to clear his mind. He needed to calm down. He needed to not use his sorcery to prove to his brother that he was _not_ weak and did _not_ need to be protected like a useless child.

Loki took a deep breath in and let it out slowly before laying his head back. Yes, he definitely needed this.

After his nerves about how Fandral was doing outweighed his desire to continue ignoring the entire world. Also, the water was getting cold and he couldn't remember the spell to warm it back up. With a sigh, the trickster got out of the bath, dried himself off, and dressed a bit more slowly than he needed to be. He tugged slightly at the sleeves to his jacket and looked himself over in the mirror with a frown.

He was not a warrior. He did not look like one. He was slender, but he could not be called frail. He was pale, but not sickly. There was no reason for his brother to think he was so weak.

He walked through his quarters and out the door with some trepidation, and was more than somewhat annoyed to see thatonly his brother was outside waiting for him.

"Where's Fandral?" he asked quietly.

Thor looked up and smiled warmly at his brother, faltering slightly at the question, "I suggested he leave after we finished speaking. I wished to speak with you alone."

The trickster pursed his lips slightly, "Is it about how you treat me like a child?"

"Loki, you know that isn't true. I worry for you, and look out for you as I do my friends," he said, his smile fading as he looked at his brother sadly.

"Really?" he asked, raising his eyebrows, "So _exactly_ how many have you thrown against the wall?"

Thor bit his lip and looked away, "I apologize for that."

"I'm sure that you are," he replied quietly. It was a sincere statement. "Do not think me so weak, brother."

"I don't think you weak, I think you inexperienced."

Loki's face flushed deeply and he turned so that his back was to his brother, not that Thor was looking at him. That was something he really couldn't argue with, which somehow only angered him more. "And you aren't?"

Thor sighed and glanced at his brother, "Not as much as you may think."

The trickster turned and eyed him for a moment. He did not ask for elaboration, just pursed his lips and nodded slightly. "Very well then," he took a deep breath to calm himself, "And what _wisdom_ do you wish to impart?""

"I did not mean it like that," he said with a soft laugh, trying not to sigh at how his brother could be, "I just worry about you. I wished to speak with you so…"

"Yes?"

"I… I want to be certain that you truly know what you're doing."

Loki fidgeted and managed a wry smile, "When do I not?"

"Do you?" Thor looked his brother in the eyes.

"I…" he looked at his brother helplessly, "I don't know. I'm doing what makes me happy and praying it will end well."

"Does he make you happy?"

Loki looked down, his cheeks flushing again as a shy smile crept onto his face, "Yes."

"D… I…" Thor ran a hand through his hair, "Ah… You can ask me anything you want to, and I'll try to help."

The trickster looked at him for a moment before speaking. "Let me handle my affairs as I choose. Do not interfere in such away unless I ask you to."

"I only meant to help…"

"What you meant does not matter."

Thor nodded, looking away and frowning slightly. "As you wish."

"Ah…" he suddenly felt his stomach squirm, "Thank you for your concern, though."

"You are my brother," he said, clapping a hand on his shoulder and looking at him with a sad smile, "There is no thanks needed." Loki smiled back at him just as sadly, knowing that things had changed somehow. Thor eventually took his hand back from his brother's shoulder and the two stood in silence for several moments before Thor broke it again.

"You _do_ care for him, right?"

"O-of course I do," he said, feeling as if he'd been dealt a physical blow. It took a moment for him to gather himself, "How could you need to ask that?"

Thor sighed heavily, "Brother- I love you deeply, but do not think I'm blind to your flaws. You manipulate people for your own ends. I never wished for that to be the case now, but I felt that I had to ask. Fandral cares a great deal for you, and if you truly were 'taking advantage' of him as you said…"

Loki scowled and looked away. _Again_ his brother said something he could not argue with. It was becoming quite the annoying habit. "I understand- as you sought to protect me, you seek to protect your friend."

"I am sorry that I asked it, but yes. That is exactly what I am doing."

"You need not worry."

"I know," Thor said with a soft smile. Loki gave him a questioning, almost suspicious, look and the boy laughed. "Brother- you would not have reacted like that if you didn't care for Fandral. I know you too well, you would have used that silver tongue of yours to weave the truth so you didn't have to answer the question."

The trickster sighed, "Am I so predictable?"

"Not at all, I _never_ thought you would agree to a truce with Sif," he replied with a smirk.

Loki frowned slightly, "It _is_ on the proviso that _she_ do the same."

"I am aware…" he said, holding back a sigh before smiling brightly, "But I will be happy with it as long as it lasts." The trickster nodded silently, his face as neutral as he could make it. After a few moments, Thor nudged his brother gently, "They'll be serving lunch soon- we should go."

"Has it been that long?" Loki asked with a frown, he and Fandral had gone there with plans to go to breakfast and already it was midday?

Thor nodded, "You spent a great deal of time in your room."

"I didn't realize, I apologize."

"Don't, it was no bother," he said, giving his brother his warmest of smiles.

* * *

Although Fandral had not been there when the two brothers first arrived at the great hall, he soon arrived and soon joined them for the meal. It was somewhat tense, the three trying to work out how and if the situation changed anything, but not unpleasant. Thor came up with some excuse that seemed rather flimsy to leave the two alone afterwards, which Loki was thankful for.

"How did your talk with him go?" he asked Fandral gently as they started wandering the halls of Asgard aimlessly, hand in hand.

The blond smiled and shrugged, "Better than I expected it to. It's hardly worth mentioning." His smile fell slightly, "I _am_ sorry that it interrupted our breakfast plans though."

"It did, didn't it?" Loki said thoughtfully, stopping for a moment.

Fandral turned to him when he stopped with a look of concern, "Is something wrong?"

"No," he replied, shaking his head and putting on a smile, "It's fine, really." He started walking again, tugging slightly at Fandral's hand to make sure he followed

"If you're certain," he replied quietly, not really believing it. He still wasn't entirely sure what to do when Loki was like this, when something was clearly wrong yet he insisted there wasn't. This time he did not press, hoping that if it were something that concerned him Loki would tell him. Sometimes he was bothered by how guarded Loki could be, although he was grateful for just how much of that guard Loki let down around him.

"I don't know how Thor found out… I imagine you didn't tell him before, in the hallway," Loki said quietly.

"Thor told me… Apparently he had gone to see you last night and spent some time fretting after not finding you in your room. Eventually Heimdall sent a guard over to say that you were safe, and he also said where you were," Fandral replied, shaking his head.

"Heimdall," the trickster said with a slight scowl. He had never cared fort eh watchman. His ability to see _everything_ was more than a bit off-putting and he'd stopped Loki's pranks before he had a chance to make them more than once.

"It was probably better than leaving him to worry all night," he pointed out, noticing Loki's expression.

He growled in his throat slightly before nodding reluctantly, "You _are_ right. I _don't_ want to see what Thor would be like after a night worrying about me… I just can't help but think that Heimdall did it on purpose."

Fandral nodded, "I know… I'm not happy about it, either." He sighed slightly and gave Loki's hand a squeeze, "It wasn't his to tell."

"Exactly," he said, looking up at Fandral with a fond smile. Most people neither understood nor shared his dislike for the watchman and it was rather refreshing to hear someone agree with him on the subject. Especially in this case. Even if his ability was needed to keep Asgard safe- how exactly did telling Thor about this relationship keep Asgard safe? "By the way- do you think you'll tell your other friends?"

Fandral's face went stony for a moment as he thought about it. He did not expect good responses from either of them, certainly not Sif. At the same time, he did not delight in keeping secrets from them. "I will, I do not know when, though."

"It's most likely best that I not be there," he said quietly, trying not to let his feelings of dislike into his voice.

"I thought so as well," he agreed just as quietly. The two stopped and looked at each other for a moment. Fandral smiled, "It doesn't matter what they say, I promise."

The trickster nodded with a half smile, "You care about them, what they say matters."

The blond chuckled and pulled Loki into a close embrace, "You're right, I misspoke. Nothing they say will change my mind about you." He pulled back to look at the pale boy's face, and sighed sadly, "I'll tell you when I decide to tell them- please meet me afterwards. I think that I'll need your company afterwards."


	19. Chapter 19

The next day was rather uneventful. Or it was, until Tyr's class. Fandral was paired with Thor, which in itself wasn't unusual. Once the two started sparring, however, something was notably different.

Thor struck more fiercely, his blows hitting harder. It seemed less like the usual sparring for practice and more like a proper fight with the intention to maim. Fandral wanted to ask what was going on, but attempts to call a time out were ignored and he couldn't get a sentence out very easily. The few words he did manage were also ignored.

It only took a few harsh blows for Fandral to be completely on the defensive, unable to keep up without the risk of hurting his friend. This only caused Thor to strike harder, and finally Fandral gave in and started to strike with as much severity, the two ignoring Tyr's shouted warnings as the fight continued to escalate.

The two were both skilled enough that the fight lasted for a good amount of time, but it could only last so long. Eventually the two were too battered and exhausted to properly continue their fight. Despite this, Tyr still had to drag them apart before they stopped trying to hit each other. They might have kept trying, but they were both too weak to struggle out of Tyr's grasp holding them apart.

Volstagg and Sif, who had long since forgotten their own sparring to watch the two in horrified confusion, immediately rushed over to help them to the healing room. The two boys were sat on opposite sides of the room, just in case. Eir almost told Volstagg and Sif to leave, but after noticing the glares the two boys kept flashing at each other she let them stay just in case the two tried anything.

"Well, what have you to say for yourselves?" Volstagg asked while Eir started tending to their wounds. He looked between the two, neither responded beyond looking away sulkily.

Sif shook her head and looked over at Volstagg, though she spoke loudly enough to be sure they both heard her, "I only wish to know what has gotten into them that they would think fighting like that was acceptable. We may be warriors, but we're not barbarians."

Eir looked up to the two with a slight smile, "I'm afraid you won't be getting answers immediately. They did a good bit of damage to everything, including their jaws." she took a closer look at Fandral's, running her fingers gently over it, her magic reaching out as she did, "This one certainly managed to break his jaw, I have no doubt that Thor did something similar." She looked from one to the other and sighed, "This will not be enjoyable for either of you, there's too much to heal."

Both Thor and Fandral looked at her, their faces as alarmed as they could manage as swollen and bloodied as they were. The goddess of healing sighed and shook her head, "Even with magic, healing takes a toll on the body. Trying to heal everything as quickly as I can a single wound would exhaust both myself and you two. I'll have to heal things gradually, over times. I've called in some others who know healing magic- including Queen Frigga," Thor shrank back to hear this, "to aid me, but it will be taxing for the both of you."

Sif raised her hand uncertainly and, when Eir smiled at her to speak, quietly asked, "What will that mean?"

"Among other things, they won't be able to properly fight for a bit of time," she said, to the disappointment of all in the room before giving both boys a stern look, crossing her arms, "And also that they'll be spending _quite_ a bit of time here and be on a rather strict diet."

"On top of whatever punishment the Allfather has?" Volstagg asked with a slight smirk, "Hopefully whatever got into them, this will break them of it."

"Yes, well, that will be settled later," Eir said, finally done assessing the damage, she shook her head and muttered something to herself that none of them quite caught. She took a close look at the two boys for a moment before turning to their friends, "I thank you for your help but believe it would be better for you to leave now."

They didn't bother to make objections, leaving politely, although they stayed in the hallway outside the healing room in case any news arrived.

* * *

It was not common for Eir to call for help when there hadn't recently been a battle. It was far from unheard of, but it was only necessary with very severe wounds. When Frigga received the request and heard who it was for, she almost immediately rushed there. She would have, except she felt there was somewhere else she should immediately rush to.

Short moments after the message had reached Frigga, she was in Loki's chambers, looking as disheveled as the queen of Asgard ever did. Seeing his mother, Loki placed his book down and sat up, his eyebrows furrowed.

"Loki, my son, you know some healing magic, is that correct?" she asked, straightening up slightly and regaining her composure.

He nodded, "Yes, why? What has happened?"

"Eir has requested my help in the healing room," she smiled gently at him, "I thought you might wish to help."

"But... What happened?" he asked, there were plenty of things he didn't think he could handle trying to heal right now. Also, he was supposed to meet with Fandral in a few hours and would rather miss a chance to learn more magic than that.

Frigga sighed heavily, "Your brother... during Tyr's class I suppose he got carried away," she managed a sad smile at him, trying to be reassuring.

"Who was he fighting?" Loki asked sharply.

"What? One of his friends... Fandral, I think," she replied, taken aback.

Before she could ask why it mattered, Loki had already rushed to his bath room, shoving his better healing supplies into a bag before walking back out and looking at his mother. "We should go now."

"Of course," she replied, tilting her head to the side slightly and following her son out of the room a bit slowly. She very quickly realized that her son was very hurt and ended up rushing just as quickly, not bothering to care about what anyone they passed must have thought.

Frigga paused for a moment before entering the healing room to again collect herself, not wanting to upset her son more than he already must be. Loki noticed the two standing there and ignored them, knowing they wouldn't risk doing anything more than giving him a confused and suspicious look for being there. Not with Frigga there.

* * *

Freyja was already in the healing room when they walked in, helping Eir. Freyja was titled the goddess of sorcery, it was no surprise that she'd be asked to help. When they saw Frigga, they both stopped what they were doing and bowed, for which Frigga snapped at them that there was no time for that. Her son was hurt, and she would not have formality take a moment away from his care.

"Oh... Darling," Frigga sighed when she saw Thor, walking over to her son and kneeling by him. He didn't look as swollen as he had when he'd arrived, but he was still worse for wear. She gently ran a hand over his hair and smiled at him. He tried to give her a cocky grin, but it didn't work very well. She laughed softly, pressing a kiss to his forehead, "You must not be too hurt if you're trying that."

Loki had stopped at the door, not that any of the goddesses took notice. He could see Fandral from there, see some of the damage. He seemed to be asleep as well, though his face occasionally contorting while Eir went about her work. He wanted to throw up, run away and try to forget the look, but instead he just stood there.

At some point Fandral opened his eyes and he noticed Loki, who smiled nervously at him from the door. Fandral managed a smile back, the slightest twitch of his cheek the only indication of how much it hurt to do. With a deep breath Loki walked over and smiled gently at him, making sure his mother was fully wrapped up in fussing over Thor, and ran a hand over Fandral's forehead, traces of magic soothing the black eye as he did. He smiled sadly, "What have you done to yourself?"

"I didn't expect you," Eir said with a smile to Loki when she noticed he was there, before Fandral had a chance to respond to the question, "How does it feel to be the one healing someone else for a change?"

"Strange," he said with a slight smile. He was certain that his face was even paler than it usually was, but hoped no one would notice.

"I'm sure that you have a decent knowledge of healing magic, you've made your dislike of this place clear enough," Loki looked down but Eir laughed softly, "it's fine!" She looked him over for a moment, her face quickly growing stern, "However, I need to supervise you until I'm confident with your skills."

"As long as I can help," he said quietly, nodding although he inwardly cringed at the idea of having to be supervised. It was just what he had to do right now. He looked down at Fandral and smiled at him before looking up at Eir, "What do you want me to do?"

It took a few hours for Eir to decide she properly trusted Loki to know what he was doing. Not long after she did, Loki did something that he knew she'd never allow him to do and wasn't certain would work. Among the many books on healing he'd read, there were a few spells that let someone heal a person at your own detriment, letting someone take in damage.

"What?" Fandral started to ask a bit weakly, suddenly feeling better than he thought he should. He looked over at Loki and realized why, trying to push him off a bit desperately. "What are you doing?" he hissed, looking over at Eir and Freyja (who were going to get something and tending to Thor, respectively) to make sure they hadn't noticed.

"It's making you feel better, isn't it?" Loki asked, sitting back for a moment, trying not to be thankful for the excuse to take a break. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath before smiling up at Fandral, "I'll be fine."

"What are you doing?"

"I'm... healing you, that's all," he said, looking away slightly.

" _How_?"

Loki sighed, "I know it's not the best idea, please let me do this."

"You look like you're in pain, I will not let you hurt yourself over me," he said as firmly as he could manage.

"You're in pain as well," Loki said with a smile, glancing to make sure no one was paying attention to them before placing a kiss on Fandral's cheek, "I'm just sharing the burden."

"I..." he said, his head falling back slightly, realizing he wasn't up to winning an argument, "Please promise me that you'll be careful."

"When am I not?" he asked with a smile, biting his lip slightly before returning to his work.


	20. Chapter 20

"I _still_ think Eir's just keeping us here as punishment," Thor complained the day after the fight. Sif and Volstagg went to visit them the moment they were allowed, and nodded on sympathetically. Both he and Fandral were bruised up, there were a few cracked bones and stitched up wounds but, really, Thor had insisted, he felt well enough to leave.

Volstagg chuckled slightly at that, "Have you even tried standing up- perhaps that would convince her."

"Of course I have!" Thor insisted, furiously looking away and doing his best to cross his arms despite one being in a sling. He would never admit that _tried_ was the operative word as his leg hurt too much to put weight on and he got a bit dizzy and felt pain in more places than he'd care to think about when he'd sat up.

"She knows what she's doing, Thor, you really should listen," Sif said, smiling gently at him and uncertainly placing a hand on his arm, "we don't want you to hurt yourself any worse."

"I know," Thor said quietly, glancing up at her with a slight smile before his brows again knit together, "I just hate sitting here and feeling so useless!"

"Well let that be a lesson to the both of you," Volstagg said with a smirk, shaking his head.

"Just to him," Fandral said bitterly, almost in spite of himself. The three looked over to him in surprise, having almost forgotten he was there. Aside from the warm welcome he gave the two when they first came in, he'd been silent.

Thor glared at him for a moment before resolutely looking away, Fandral also had his head turned away from them. Sif and Volstagg exchanged a glance before parting. Sif walked over to Fandral as Volstagg tried to get Thor's mind onto a pleasanter topic.

The young warrior knelt down and smiled at her friend, "How are you feeling?"

Fandral shot her the best smile he could manage, "Quite well- all things considered." Sif only quirked an eyebrow at him, although her smile didn't change. "Well, I've had better days," he said with a sigh, "But there's nothing I can do about it-" he glanced over at Thor and raised his voice slightly "-no sense in complaining." Thor shot him another glare and Volstagg gave an exhasperated look.

Sif shook her head, "Will you tell us what happened? Thor has been, well..."

"Stubborn?"

"I didn't expect such a kind word, but yes," she replied, shaking her head.

Fandral sighed, "I meant what I said- Thor is the one that took it so far, I tried my best not to let it."

"You two barely had the energy to stay standing and we still had to pry you apart," Sif pointed out bitterly.

"You're right," he said quietly, "But I didn't start it- although I would be lying if I said that I regretted it."

"Please tell me why- what happened between you two?"

Fandral shook his head, "I'd rather not tell you right now," he smiled slightly at his friend, "I'm already bedridden I'd rather you not break anything else."

Sif frowned, "Do you really think I would hurt you when you're in such a state?"

He chuckled slightly, "If I told you what caused this- I think that's the best outcome."

She glowered at him for a moment before standing up, her lips pursed and face otherwise stony. She almost turned to leave before giving him a small, sympathetic smile, "Please don't end up like this again unless there's a _proper_ battle. _"_

"I swear to do my best," he told her, smiling back slightly as she strode over to Thor with determined steps.

When Loki had first found the spells that would let you take wounds into yourself, he was actually quite young. He went to his mother and asked her about it and she took him onto her lap and explained how dangerous a thing it was to do. Later on he found out that his access to sections of the library had been restricted, but sitting there was still a rather fond memory.

Eir didn't know this was why, very early that morning, Loki had stopped putting up a fuss as she tried to get him to his room when she promised not to tell Frigga what he had done if he'd only behave. She didn't really need to or care to know. However, she _had_ needed Loki's cooperation to be able to convince Frigga to let him heal in his own quarters, which had taken a fair bit of work.

Eir never cared to have Loki in the healing room for long- he didn't want to be there and she could only put up with a trickster for so long. He never tried anything awful, but he delighted in moving things when she only turned away from them for a moment. If magic weren't so helpful for her healing she might have grown to hate it.

It was more than a bit unsettling that he had not only gone there on his own but refused to _leave_ , but again Eir neither needed nor cared to know the reason.

"Do you even know what you did?" she asked once in his quarters, after he'd gotten into bed and she'd started making medicine.

"I just wanted to help," he replied quietly, his face betraying nothing he felt.

Eir shook her head, "Tell me how you feel."

"Sick, weak, how do you expect me to feel?"

"No," she said sharply, "You know how it feels to be hurt physically- how do you feel beyond that?"

He shrank back into his pillow, "I don't know how to word it..."

"I doubt that." this didn't get a response. "You feel _drained_ , don't you? Have you any idea how much of your energy you drained?"

"It's never happened before."

"You've never tried anything like this before."

He shifted, looking up at her warily. Very quietly he said, "Will you be able to fix it?"

Eir softened slightly, nodding, "It's the same as when you completely exhaust yourself physically- it will take time, but your energy will return. But it requires rest." She shook her head and sighed, "You won't be able to heal yourself like I know you usually do."

Loki looked down, "What are you making?"

"Something to help you sleep- deepest you've ever had," she said with a wry smile, "You need the rest and we both know it'll be easier for both of us if you sleep through the healing I have to do."

"Do I have any choice in whether or not I wait to take it until you've done the healing?"

"Healer's orders," she said, "I can't risk you trying to use your own powers to help the healing along."

Loki pursed his lips, wishing to come up with a bitter remark. Unfortunately, that had in part been his plan although he realized it would likely only make things worse. He held his hand out and, with a grimace, drank it down.

It wasn't until rather late the day after Thor and Fandral had ended up in the healing room before they found themselves both alone and conscious. They were healed enough to not need constant care and, while Frigga never left for long, she and Eir did have other things to attend to. Their friends had spent most of the day visiting but had left, Loki was absent for reasons neither really wanted to ask about.

There was really nothing for them to do there. They spent the first few minutes alone resolutely glaring away from the other. It didn't take terribly long before they started fidgety, though, each occasionally breaking their glares to glance over at the other. Occasionally they would look at the other at the same time, at first this brought renewed fervor in the glaring.

After enough of that, Thor cleared his throat and glanced over to see if he'd gotten Fandral's attention before looking away, "So- how are you feeling?"

"I've been better," was the reply, more sad than angry.

"I'd hope so!" he answered with a laugh that he quickly cut short.

"What happened?" Fandral asked, looking over with a serious expression, "I could guess- but I would appreciate hearing it in your words."

Thor looked into the distance, his face stony. He stayed silent for several minutes, and Fandral simply shook his head, there would be no point in trying to press for a response.

"You should have told me," Thor finally said.

Fandral looked away, "We didn't tell _anyone-_ you would have been the first."

Another period of silence, eventually the two fell into gingerly joking and speaking about other things, serious subjects dropped. They weren't something the two had ever excelled at speaking on.


	21. Chapter 21

It was only a complaint filled week until Thor and Fandral were finally released. It would have been sooner, Frigga had scolded them, had they not insisted on trying to get up and about before they'd healed and re-broken a few things in the process. Sif and Volstagg had, as requested, been told and were there to meet the two, although they had spent most of the past few days in there visiting as it was.

There was still tension between Thor and Fandral, but they were much more back to their old selves. If nothing else, they had re-bonded over lamenting on the tortures of being stuck in bed to heal when they could be going off on any number of increasingly more outlandish adventures. Sif and Volstagg, when there, had joined in eagerly in the planning of these exploits, and the four would occasionally stop and wonder about how long it would be until they could properly go out on adventures to the other worlds, fighting frost giants and astounding mortals and winning wars like the heroes they'd learned so much about.

"What adventures do you want to try first, then?" Volstagg asked with a smirk as they made their way to the door.

"None- you know perfectly well that you two need to be careful for the next week _at minimum_ ," Frigga called sternly from where she was talking with Eir, causing Volstagg to shrink into himself slightly. They made their way out with much promising to be careful, which the Queen of Asgard rolled her eyes at with a soft smile. As if she didn't know her own son better than that.

"Do either of you know where my brother is?" Thor asked uncertainly after they had left the healing room.

"No- why would we?" Sif asked with a snort, "He won't have anything to do with us outside of class."

"He _has_ been to class, then?"

"Of course- why wouldn't he?" she asked, confused. Fandral and Thor both glanced away uncomfortably and Sif raised an eyebrow, "He hasn't been to visit you?"

"Not for some time, no," Thor muttered, "Mother said something about him being barred from visiting me, but wouldn't say why. I thought he'd gotten into trouble."

"If we'd heard anything, you'd be the first to know," Volstagg said, shaking his head.

Sif rolled her eyes, "He hates that place- she's probably just saying that instead of admitting Loki doesn't want to visit his own brother when he's hurt."

"I doubt that's the case," Fandral said quietly, not meeting the questioning glance of either of his two friends.

"It isn't- my mother would have told me if it were," Thor said harshly, causing Sif to shrink back slightly.

"Of course, my apologies," she said quietly.

Thor smiled broadly at her before glancing at the hallway they were coming up on. He turned to his friends with a more serious look on his face, "I shall have to find out myself. I'm afraid that means I'll leave you here- but we shall have to make plans to go on that adventure very soon." He grins at them with that last bit, earning appreciative chuckles.

Fandral shifted nervously as Thor left, wanting to go with him but not yet ready to tell his friends why, but grinned broadly at them when they turned to him.

"What about it, then? Shall we go on those adventures without him?" Volstagg asked with a chuckle, "Three warriors are more than enough- we can manage without Thor for a day!"

"I would, friend!" Fandral replied with a genuine laugh before sighing wistfully, "Alas, I have not recovered my strength quite as much as Thor. Our plans indeed must wait for another day."

"No matter, we'll find other ways to amuse ourselves," Volstagg replied with a nod.

"Certainly, what sort of things have you wanted to do while cooped up in there?" Sif asked with a smile, gently nudging Fandral to lead the way.

Thor did not bother knocking when he reached his brother's chambers, he very rarely did. Loki barely bothered glancing up from the book he was reading at first, although his head jolted up as he realized who had entered his room.

"Brother!" He said, somewhat shocked to see him, he smirked slightly, "I do hope you were _allowed_ to leave and haven't just given Eir the slip."

"I tried," he said solemnly, "But she was simply too fast for me." He bit his lip for a moment, "Mother told me that you were banned from seeing us- what happened?"

Loki turned back to his book, eyes not focusing on the page in front of him. Without looking up he said gently, "I attempted some magic that one is not supposed to use, trying to help Fandral to heal. It took several days to recover and they forbade me from seeing either of you in case I tried again."

Thor's eyes darkened for a moment but he managed a slight chuckle, "Trying to heal Fandral but not your own brother? I'm hurt."

Loki sniffed haughtily, "Well if I wasn't certain it was your fault perhaps I would have." Thor stared at him for a moment before he laughed softly, "I _had_ planned to heal you as well, before I passed out."

Thor nodded, smiling slightly, "I'm glad that you're okay, you shouldn't have done what you did."

"If you could, you would have done the same."

The two sat in a comfortable silence for a moment. Eventually Loki again looked at his book, biting his lip uncertainly before asking, "Is Fandral well enough to leave the healing room as well?"

"Yes," Thor said with a nod. Loki's shoulders fell slightly at this. "He would have come with me, but our friends had come to see us out."

"I understand," Loki said quietly before shaking his head and glancing up at his brother, smiling gently. "Thank you for coming to see if I was alright- I know you would have preferred to stay with them."

Thor chuckled slightly and sat down next to his brother. "Ah, I have seen my friends a great deal while there- it's my brother who I wish to catch up with now." He gestured to the book that Loki was so eager to hide behind, "Come- tell me what this is about."

Loki rolled his eyes with a smile, "I can guarantee that this is nothing you have any interest in, Thor."

"Try me anyways," he replied with a gentle smile, peering over his brother's shoulder.

It took several hours for Fandral to tear himself away from his friends. This was mostly because, they were right, there were a number of things that he'd deeply missed out on being able to do while stuck in the healing room and was all too eager to go out and get into the harmless bits of trouble that they tended to fall into together. Eventually his wounds made it known that he was not quite as healed as he'd liked and he had to stop, and the three parted ways. At which point, Fandral started on the way to see Loki rather than to his own room.

As luck would have it, he reached the corridor at about the same time that Thor was leaving. The two noticed each other gladly, although Fandral had tensed up slightly. He had no interest in ending up in the healing room again, and only just realized that that might be what happened. Thor, noticing this, simply laughed.

"I won't begrudge you seeing him," he said with a knowing glance that made Fandral's face heat up slightly, although he smirked back. Thor glanced at the door he'd just exited and a more serious look took its place, "My brother may not be happy with me for saying this, but I would like to tell you why Loki was banned from seeing us before you go in."

Fandral raised an eyebrow at that but nodded. He listened to the explanation and ran a hand through his hair when it was done, "I can't believe he would do something so reckless."

"Can't you?" Thor asked with a chuckle, "Wouldn't you do something just as much so were you in his place?"

Fandral's face went stony for a moment but eventually he sighed and nodded, "Yes- but I wish he hadn't endangered himself. I would have preferred to see him..."

Thor sighed slightly, "Yes, as would I." He smiled gently, "You can now, though."

Fandral smiled, glad to more or less have his friend's blessing on this. He paused for a moment, "Why did you want to tell me first?"

Thor glanced away slightly, "Because you are one for dramatics and thought that if you were prone to them now, I would prefer you get them out of the way with me than risk hurting him."

"I don't think he's as fragile as you act," Fandral said gently, trying to sound comforting rather than cruel.

Thor smiled, "Perhaps, but still he is my little brother and I'll always want to protect him if I can."

"I understand," Fandral replied before knocking on the door.

* * *

Loki jumped slightly at the knock on the door. The number of people who knocked that he actually wanted to see was very, very small. In fact, it was just one person. With that thought he rushed to the door before timidly opening it.

"I'm glad to see you're well," Loki said gently, smiling nervously as he moved aside to let Fandral in.

Fandral smiled back, "And you." He rubbed his neck slightly, "I just saw Thor and he told me what you did, why you couldn't come to see us."

"Oh," Loki said gently before glancing away, "I apologize, I didn't expect them to ban me completely." He glanced back at Fandral uncertainly, "I did want to see you."

"I thought you might," Fandral said with a soft laugh, placing a hand on Loki's cheek, "I understand why you did it- but please never put yourself in danger for me again."

Loki laughed at that, leaning into the touch and smirking slightly, "Do you really expect me to keep that promise?"

"No," Fandral chuckled, "No more than I could." He pulled his hand away gently, a pang of guilt hitting him, "I should have come to see you sooner."

"You wanted to spend time with your friends, I understand that," Loki said softly, mostly meaning it. He smiled at Fandral, "I was glad to have some time with my brother alone, I feel like we haven't been able to do that very often."

"I did want to see them, but I wanted to see you more," Fandral said with a sigh, "I'm just not ready to tell them." He glanced at Loki uncertainly, "I'm sorry."

"Don't be," Loki said with a gentle laugh, "We weren't even able to tell Thor- and he loves us both. I can't blame you for not wanting to tell them." His face darkened slightly, "I do not want to know Sif's response."

Fandral groaned and laughed at the same time, a hand to his forehead, "Neither do I! If it were only Volstagg I would have a much easier time, but I will get Hel from her."

The two smiled at each other for a long moment.

"Things are alright, then?" Fandral asked gently.

Loki quirked an eyebrow and smiled uncertainly, "That would seem to be the case. Where you expecting otherwise?"

Fandral shook his head, "No, and I'm glad to be correct."


End file.
